Conference noted::sf

    I agree.  The story was disappointing in the extreme.

    Before I invest any energy in reading the possibly-worthwhile books
    at the beginning of the trilogy, could you tell me what "General
    Semantics" is and give some idea of the plot?  I seem to recall
    that "null-A" was short for "non-Aristotelian," but that's it.
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    re .2
    	If you live anywhere in the Marlboro area, or near the Mill,
    	you can borrow my copy.  If you're really ambitious, I'll try
    	to scrounge up my copy of "Science and Sanity", the tome that
    	started it all...
    
    As I interpreted "Gen. Sem.", it was an awareness of the impact
    of language on the nervous system, and the process of 'integrating'
    the nervous system to its optimum performance.
    
    Dwight

    Thanks, but I'm in Nashua.  A bit too far.
    
    ESW

    In response:
    
    "General Semanrtics" is a discipline that was initiated by Coyunt
    Alexander Koryzbsky (spelling?), and concerned means of codifying
    and clarifying meaning of messages.  It's an interesting discipline,
    even if the original "bible," A. K.'s _Science and Sanity_ is almost
    unreadable.  Former Senator Sam Hayakawa of California is a General
    Semanticist.
    
    In the van Vogt "Null-A" universe, this discipline was taken as
    the basis of a culture (and a world).  The hero is one Gilbert Gosseyn
    (pronounced, to van Vogt's delight when he found it out later, "go
    sane"; this fit in very well with his message).
    
    The first book is complex and muddled, although at the time it was
    written, many of the concepts were highly innovative.  It was described
    in a fanzine parody of the Science Fiction Book Club with the capsule
    description, "A major novel in which none of the characters has
    the slightest idea what thew Hell is going on."  Not a bad description.
    
    However, it isn't a bad book (Damon Knight was a _little_ hard on
    it, though not much), and in many ways, it was seminal to many later
    stories: that was _the World of Null-A."
    
    The sequel, _Players of Null-A_, takes Gosseyn out into the galaxy
    and pits him against several fascinating characters, including a
    rather strange entity called The Follower.  Although it should be
    read with the first book, and although in some ways it was even
    harder to digest than its predecessors, it is in many ways, AEvV
    at his top form.  The hero has one extremely useful superpower (not
    counting his Null-A training).  The antagonist has _two_.  There
    is an incredible identity crisis, a race of superpoweered beings,
    a galactic war, culture clash, and Ancient Secrets, all as
    _background_!  To me, it's a highly enjoyable book.
    
    But it left more loose threads than you'd find in the explosion
    of a blanket factory.
    
    The latest book addresses _some_ of these.  But, as "noted" earlier,
    the writing is very, embarrassingly, poor.  If you can somehow slog
    through this, you'll see that AEvV is still inventive; just literarily
    rusty.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    
>    "General Semanrtics" is a discipline that was initiated by Coyunt
>    Alexander Koryzbsky (spelling?), and concerned means of codifying
>    and clarifying meaning of messages.  It's an interesting discipline,
>    even if the original "bible," A. K.'s _Science and Sanity_ is almost
>    unreadable.  Former Senator Sam Hayakawa of California is a General
>    Semanticist.

	When I first read the novel I was so taken with it that I did
read Korzbsky's (spelling?)book.  It was fascinating and compelling.
It was also complete tripe.

	General semantics is a pseudo-science combining several good ideas
from the field of Semantics with some truly outrageous interpretations
of philosophic and scientific concepts.  While I have no problem with
those who would junk Aristotle - the 'non-Artitoteleanism' he preaches
is based on basic misconceptions of what Aristotle meant.  

	The best thing about Korzbsky is that his cult was included in a joyous
book which I believe was called "Facts and Fallacies in Science" by
Martin Gardner.  I'll try to look it up for a proper reference.  This gem
also treats Dianetics and flat earthers and had me rolling on the floor.

	I have read one of Hayakawa's books on semantics and have little
difficulty in believing that he was influenced by Korzbyski, or even
Hubbard.

    re .6 - I think Gardner's book is titled "Fads and Fallacies in
    the Name of Science".   There's another similar book whose author's
    name escapes me just now (I'll look it up when I get home) called
    "Uncommon Sense" which is about most ordinary people's (as opposed
    to scientists and pseudo-scientists) misunderstandings of reality
    (perhaps more appropriate to the "technology vs. magic" note?)

    len.