Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Don Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: (Tears) Report on Probability A by Brian W. Aldiss Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2024 14:47:02 -0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 96 Message-ID: <20240610a@crcomp.net> References: <20240609a@crcomp.net> <20240609b@crcomp.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8stipulation Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2024 16:47:03 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="d138fd9a5085ac4792c444943503196b"; logging-data="544601"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19KstINd01YcsMrx1lBWKfV" Cancel-Lock: sha1:prQvopgmBM/gCMrXkF868IIpea8= Bytes: 5245 Titus G wrote: > Don wrote: >> William Hyde wrote: >>> Don wrote: >>>> James Nicoll wrote: >>>>> Report on Probability A by Brian W. Aldiss >>>>> >>>>> A New Wave tale of observational recursion, >>>>> >>>>> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/a-straight-a-student >>>> >>>> Thank you for the embedded link to _The Hireling Shepherd_. It's another >>>> example where an artistic image's blatant symbolism clobbers me in the >>>> head with the force of the stupid hammer. >>>> _The Hireling Shepherd_ brings to mind a similar sexual situation in >>>> _Fifth Business_ (Davies). The author, apparently an aficionado of >>>> Shakespeare, kindly defines Fifth Business in his preface. Perhaps you, >>>> in your role of theater staff member, also recognize the phrase, James. >>>> >>>> Fifth Business … Definition >>>> >>>> Those roles which, being neither those of >>>> Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, >>>> but which were none the less essential to >>>> bring about the Recognition or the dénouement >>>> were called the Fifth Business in drama >>>> and opera companies organized according >>>> to the old style; the player who acted these >>>> parts was often referred to as Fifth Business. >>>> >>>> —Tho. Overskou, Den Danske Skueplads >>> >>> >>> Davies invented the term, and this quotation. >>> >>> It's a very fine novel nonetheless. I like it more each time I read it. >> >> It was thrown against the wall by me after its Stupidity Hammer hit >> readers with hobo homosexual rape fantasies. > > The hobo did not commit rape but was a victim of a saint's beneficence. > There was perhaps rape of the youth by the fair worker though it was not > clear whether consent was granted. Minor details. > You have denied yourself a great read. If you haven't done so, I would > recommend you read one of his other trilogies which have nothing in > common with the Deptford IIRC. Allow me to belated thank William for clarifying the origin of the "Fifth Business." Lesson learned - epigraphs are every bit as fictional as the rest of the story. Davies is gifted. He masterfully expresses himself. He excels at symbolic imagery. Davies even magnanimously hints at how readers can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps to become polymaths. (Yeah, right?) Does it surprise anyone at this point for Davies to now become anti- grist for my Love-Hate mill? Davies' Gnostic attitude about all denominations being more-or-less the same ?snake oil? in different bottles rubs me the wrong way. Then there's the tacit approval of a false face presented in public, passed off as virtue. Here's his hobo homosexual fantasy: Funny how fierce it gets when the body is ill fed and ill used. Tramps are sodomites mostly. I was a young fellow, and it's the young ones and the real old ones that get used, because they can't fight as well. It's not kid-glove stuff, like that Englishman went to prison for; it's enough to kill you, you'd think, when a gang of tramps set on a young fellow. But it doesn't, you know. That's how I lost my hearing, most of it; I resisted a gang, and they beat me over the ears with my own boots till I couldn't resist any more. Do you know what they say? "Lots o' booze and buggery". they say. For a moment, put yourself into my shoes. According to more than one reader on the Inet, _Fifth Business_ allegedly contains a Roger Bacon character. "Where's Roger Bacon?" my mind ponders when the above passage gobsmacks me. It's been patiently waiting for Bacon a long time by this point in the story. And all its patience is rewarded with the above passage?!? It finally dawns on me how the Bacon character's a subverted expectation. An illusory allusion or something. In the end, there's more than enough evil encountered by me in real life. There's no need whatsoever for me to fantasize about it. Danke, -- Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God. tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.