🚀 go-pugleaf

hall@vice.ICO.TEK.COM (Hal F Lillywhite) writes:

>In article <pi*r^2> jac@ds8.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Carr) writes:

>>                                                 The current issue of 
>>Physics Today has a viewpoint by "Professor Mozart" addressing a similar  
>>problem with scientific seminars and talks at meetings. 

>Right.  And this whole thing started with a report of some English 
>prof claiming that scientists are not good at literature.  

To be fair the report was of an English prof who asked "are there any
scientists who write literature"  (maybe it was "novels") which is
not at all the same thing.

>I consider Mermin's writing about his friend Mozart evidence to the
>contrary.  A glance at a few of these articles convinces me that he 
>is a better creative writer than 90% of the literature scholars 
>around today.  

OK, I'll call you on this.  Name five literature scholars (you can name 
five who write worse than Mermin, or five who write better, I don't care,
but they should be of approximately equal prominence in their fields as
Mermin is in his.)  Do you really know that or are you just saying it?

>(Of course he is also a better creative writer than
>90% of the physical scientists around today.)

Mermin is about the _only_ person who ever writes creatively in Physics
Today.  I am sure there are more who could, but the standards of the
community are such that they do not.  That is the issue.  Attempts to
start a war with the English department are just a distraction.

-Ben

"watch: one name will be Camille Paglia"