[HN Gopher] Heinlein's Fan Mail Solution
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Heinlein's Fan Mail Solution
Author : blackbrokkoli
Score : 139 points
Date : 2024-03-17 10:11 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (kk.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (kk.org)
| domador wrote:
| It's fascinating for me to try and guess what kind of questions
| or requests would have prompted certain answers on Heinlein's
| list. I wonder which ones would have prompted a reference to the
| "You're Not As Smart As You Could Be" or the "Mental Telegraphy"
| articles. But I'm especially intrigued by the 12th answer, where
| Heinlein essentially offers to personally come to a student's
| defense when a grade on a project seems to depend on Heinlein's
| reply. I wonder how many times he ended up speaking to teachers,
| principals, and school boards about this, and what that looked
| like.
| fl7305 wrote:
| So if you're a teacher who wants to chat with Heinlein, you
| don't write to him directly.
|
| Instead you tell a student that he will fail your class unless
| he gets Heinlein to help him.
| MPSimmons wrote:
| I cannot imagine that discussion would have worked out at all
| in the teacher's favor.
| 48864w6ui wrote:
| And who tried to give RMS a parrot?
| MPSimmons wrote:
| Or bought one just because he was going to crash on their
| couch
| eesmith wrote:
| A couple Heinlein's stories referred to a Renshaw device.
|
| From "Assignment in eternity" at
| https://archive.org/details/assignmentineter0000hein_h0q8/pa...
| :
|
| "Around World War II Dr Samuel Renshaw at the Ohio State
| University was proving that most people are about one-fifth
| efficient in using their capacities to see, hear, taste, feel,
| and remember. His research was swallowed in the morass of
| communist pseudoscience that obtained after World Word III, but
| after his death, his findings were preserved underground."
|
| That Renshaw is the author of "You're Not As Smart As You Could
| Be".
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Renshaw lists more places
| where Heinlein cites Renshaw's tachistoscopic training,
| including in this fan mail response.
| eesmith wrote:
| http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/nsp_rah-telepathy.php says the
| "Mental Telegraphy" is from Expanded Universe, and includes a
| copy of Twain's text.
|
| I haven't reread Heinlein for decades and don't remember the
| reference. An archive.org search of the book wasn't fruitful.
| WillAdams wrote:
| It's worth noting that Isaac Asimov and Piers Anthony made it a
| point to respond to _every_ letter which they received (and PA
| noted that they were the only writers who never suffered from
| writer's block), though later the latter's mail grew to the point
| where he adopted a similar news letter/form-mail response system.
| phonon wrote:
| Speaking of Piers Anthony...anyone know if he is okay? He
| hasn't sent out his monthly newsletter for almost 9 months.
|
| https://hipiers.com/newsletters/
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| Maybe you should send him a letter.
| a2tech wrote:
| Hard to believe he decamped from his house in Florida which
| was the genesis of the xanth novels to move to California. I
| didn't realize he was almost pushing 90 years old either.
| Scubabear68 wrote:
| I sent him a fan letter a few years ago. It was answered by
| an assistant that said Piers no longer directly responds to
| mail, but it is read to him.
| nytesky wrote:
| I'm from that part of Florida, it's is crazy hot and humid
| and far from the beaches (though quiet as 'the nature
| coast'). Medical care is spotty outside of the "big"
| cities, and California is much more temperate.
| dugmartin wrote:
| I wrote Piers Anthony in the mid-80s when I was a teenager and
| I can confirm he sent non-form letter replies. He replied on a
| dot matrix printed postcard and (briefly) answered the two
| questions in my letter to him.
|
| I wrote to a few authors around that time and the biggest reply
| I received was from David Eddings. He sent me a thick 8.5x11
| envelope with the syllabus and class notes from a writing class
| he taught when I asked him about how to become a better writer.
| ilamont wrote:
| There was a very good This American Life episode in which a
| teenaged fan visited Piers Anthony in the 1980s ("Just South of
| the Unicorns," https://www.thisamericanlife.org/470/show-me-
| the-way). Per the Gizmodo summary:
|
| _It's an interesting story about the relationship between
| authors and fans, and how mundane fantasies can sometimes be
| more powerful than magical ones. It's also an ultimately
| uplifting look at how Anthony, through his books and his
| advice, helped a young man through a particularly challenging
| time in his life._
|
| As a young SFF reader in the 1980s, I enjoyed the Xanth series
| to a point but got much further into his earlier hard-edged
| science fiction, specifically Chthon and Macroscrope.
| KerrAvon wrote:
| According to Ginny Heinlein's notes in Grumbles from the Grave,
| Arthur C. Clarke also eventually used a form letter system.
| teucris wrote:
| I was curious as to what articles he was referring to. Here is
| the one from number 3:
|
| https://www.panshin.com/critics/Renshaw/notassmart/notassmar...
| n3storm wrote:
| He could be great friends with Richard Stallman
| crooked-v wrote:
| I'm amused by the combination of goodwill towards some and
| implicit snark towards everyone else represented by the last item
| in the list.
| dhosek wrote:
| There's something rather delightful with this form letter that
| makes me wish I had fan mail so I could do something similar.
| It's a nice glimpse into what everyone else is writing when you
| get your response.
| ThinkBeat wrote:
| Now this entire process could be (is?) automated. Send an email
| to your favorite author, some computer references earlier answers
| and ships it off within seconds.
|
| If this does not yet exist it would be a nice SAAS startup? (You
| owe me 1% of profits)
|
| For an add-on cost the bot will wait a random period of time to
| make it appear that someone had read it, and responded
| personally.
| hristov wrote:
| Interesting, but i did not like the part where he said heinlein
| was a great writer. He just kind of slipped that in there. But no
| he isnt.
| Jun8 wrote:
| In a similar vein, here's a list of canonical Reddit replies (I
| deleted a few naughty ones).
|
| Generating a similar list for HN would be amusing/useful. Or
| surprising, since HN comments are generally more substantive.
| Still, looking for pattern comments less than, say, three
| sentences would be interesting.
|
| [] Yes [] This [] Came here to say this [] Logged in just to
| upvote this [] I know this will never be seen but... [] I found
| this gem... [] This will be downvoted to hell/buried but... [] An
| upvote for you, good sir [] You are a gentleman and a scholar []
| You magnificent bastard [] M'lady / tips fedora [] Someone give
| this man reddit gold [] Edit: Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!
| [] Anne Frankly I did nazi that coming [] That escalated quickly
| [] To the top with you! [] Lost it at ____ [] This is why we
| can't have nice things [] Faith in humanity restored [] Whoa /
| mind = blown [] Manly tears were shed [] Cutting onions [] I know
| that feel, bro [] Right in the feels [] Risky click [] Shots
| fired [] Nailed it [] You. I like you [] I regret that I only
| have one upvote to give [] Tree fiddy [] Was not disappointed []
| Wait, why do I have you tagged as _______? [] What did I just
| read? [] Da fuq? [] YOU HAD ONE JOB [] Cakeday [] For science []
| That's enough internet for me today [] x/10 would (not) Y [] What
| is this I don't even? [] How is this WTF? [] Lawyer up, delete
| facebook, hit the gym [] Said no one ever [] /thread [] My first
| post [] Edit: wow I can't believe my top comment is about _______
| [] EDIT: Seriously front page? Thanks guys! [] EDIT: Obligatory
| front page edit!!! [] Are you me? [] No, this is Patrick! [] I
| laughed way harder than I should have [] It's almost like Reddit
| is thousands of different people with thousands of different
| opinions. [] Plot twist: _____ [] Step one: be attractive. Step
| two: don't be unattractive. [] ____ here: can confirm / can
| confirm: am ____/ etc [] Something involving sex with "your mom"
| [] Mom's spaghetti [] Tom Cruise [] Ghandi (Gandhi*) [] [________
| intensifies] [] rekt
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