232 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
232 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
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From mv@liisa.pp.fi Sat Mar 28 04:18:49 1998
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X-Delivered: at request of bin on uncle
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Received: from liisa.pp.fi (liisa.pp.fi [193.66.64.231])
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by uncle.ssc.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id EAA28440
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for <gazette@ssc.com>; Sat, 28 Mar 1998 04:18:44 -0800
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Received: from liisa.pp.fi (liisa.pp.fi [127.0.0.1])
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by liisa.pp.fi (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id OAA02340
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for <gazette@ssc.com>; Sat, 28 Mar 1998 14:17:26 +0200
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Message-Id: <199803281217.OAA02340@liisa.pp.fi>
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X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97
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To: gazette@ssc.com
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From: "Martin Vermeer" <mv@liisa.pp.fi>
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Reply-to: mv@fgi.fi, mv@liisa.pp.fi
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Subject: Tale
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Mime-Version: 1.0
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Content-Type: multipart/mixed ;
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boundary="==_Exmh_20628104160"
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Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 14:17:22 +0200
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Sender: mv@liisa.pp.fi
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Status: RO
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This is a multipart MIME message.
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--==_Exmh_20628104160
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
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Hi,
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some material, this time of the "far-out" variety. I hope you can use it!=
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Martin
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-- =
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Martin Vermeer mv@liisa.pp.fi mv@fgi.fi =
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--==_Exmh_20628104160
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Content-Type: text/plain; name="tale.html"; charset=iso-8859-1
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Content-Description: tale.html
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
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Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="tale.html"
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html; charset=3Diso-=
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8859-1">
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<META NAME=3D"GENERATOR" CONTENT=3D"Mozilla/4.04 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2=
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=2E0.31 i486) [Netscape]">
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</HEAD>
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<BODY TEXT=3D"#663300" BGCOLOR=3D"#FFFF99" LINK=3D"#0000EF" VLINK=3D"#511=
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88E" ALINK=3D"#FF0000">
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<H1>
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A tale in writing</H1>
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I suppose most of you are like me, every evening watching the tv, and on
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friday going out and renting the latest DV's from the corner store. Every=
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body
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does that; after work, you want some fun and don't want to think too much=
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,
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and those stories are quite good, actually. Of course they all look the
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same, after a while; I suppose that's what you get when one company is
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controlling all production. But at least it's safe for the kids to watch.=
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You know what to expect for your money.
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<P>Now the other day, a couple years ago, a funny thing happened to me.
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A friend -- I won't tell you his name -- put this thing into my hands.
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A small rectangular thing, you could put it into your pocket. No power
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chord; funny. And you could open it, just like that. Inside, sheets and
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sheets of white paper bound together; and on those sheets, small black
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marks, thousands of them. You could open the thing -- a <I>book</I>, they=
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call it -- at any point; it is random-access, just like a video disk, if
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you know what I mean. Not like those oldfashioned video tapes that you
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have to reel to get to the point you want.
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<P>Now the most fascinating thing about this <I>book</I>, and those black=
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markings: they <I>mean</I> something! Some people actually look at them
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and get the meaning straightaway, turning page after page, taking in a
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complete story as if they were watching it from the DV screen. I looked
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at it with amazement. It was really baffling -- there were just these bla=
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ck
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signs on the paper, rows and rows of them, <I>letters</I> and <I>words</I=
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>
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and <I>sentences</I> -- and as dead as doornails. But the moment someone
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capable of taking them in, looked at them, they turned into a living stor=
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y,
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with really living people talking back to the person looking at the book!=
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You know, I got all worked up about it, when the reality of the thing was=
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finally penetrating. Some of those words even referred to <I>non-existing=
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</I>
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things. Boy, this was <I>wild</I> stuff!
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<P>I wanted to learn this too. I told my friend, and he said "you want
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to learn to read? Sure!". That's how I started learning to read books.
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It wasn't easy, mind you. It was a lot of hard work, and took me many mon=
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ths
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before I would be able to understand the meaning even of simple <I>text
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</I>(sorry for the jargon). Several times, I would quit in desperation.
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But suddenly it started to make sense, and things would miraculously come=
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to life before my mind's eyes -- without any television screen, just me
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and my mind. A new universe opened itself to me!
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<P>Through my friend, I met other people who had gone through the same
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experience. What struck me was, how friendly and helpful -- and <I>civili=
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zed</I>
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-- they all were. They didn't look down on me for only recently having
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joined their ranks; no, they helped me, provided me with books to read,
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and gradually I became versed in the ways of this new culture, and made
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a habit of reading books all the time. If only I could explain the experi=
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ence,
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of real people from near and far, coming to life just from dead marks on
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paper, no electricity, no display screen involved, no nothing... just the=
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miraculous working of the unaided human mind...
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<P>My family was worried about me; they witnessed with growing concern
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how my previous voracious appetite for digital video cartridges all but
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disappeared -- those are really, and I mean <I>really</I>, mediocre and
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devoid of imagination once you get to know books -- and I would withdraw
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with these weird, archaic-looking rectangular paper objects, spiritualist=
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ic
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stuff that sane people would not have anything to do with... I tried, wit=
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h
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little luck, to explain to them what had happened to me.
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<P>Now, reading has become a way of life for me; I sometimes withdraw to
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remote places, with just books as company. On one occasion I climbed a
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tree to read a book while sitting up there; damned uncomfortable, but I
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just wanted to show to myself that <I>it could be done</I>, as book=
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s
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have no power cord etc. Since I've found out that this is rather typical
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behaviour for newbie reading geeks. Or, I go out and meet my reading frie=
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nds,
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and discuss at length all the things of common interest. There is no end
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to it really.
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<P>A funny thing about the reading subculture is that you can get a discu=
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ssion
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going about the most far-out and irrelevant subjects. I remember a heated=
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debate going on over many evenings on <I>where the page numbers</I> (the
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sequence numbers added to the pages in a book to more easily refer to the=
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m)<I>
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should be put</I>: bottom right, bottom middle or top right! One would
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imagine that better uses for one's time could be found... and then there
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are books containing, in addition to text, pictures. These are a sort of
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hybrid between "real" books and digital video's. I have been told that
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they may help to spread the reading art to a broader audience... others,
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however, especially the veteran reading subculture members, are disgusted=
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by this, saying that it contaminates the true and noble art and is a conc=
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ession
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to commercialism -- meaning, of course, Universal Digital Video Inc.
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<P>One thing I also learned, was that books, or texts, are somethin=
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g
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you can produce yourself. You can put black marks on paper -- <I>writing<=
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/I>,
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they call it -- until you got the equivalent of a book made all by you.
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Then, when people read your book, <I>you</I> spring to life before <I>the=
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ir</I>
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eyes, and you can tell them whatever you want -- without even appearing
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before a camera! Imagine.
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<P>Not that producing <I>text</I> is easy! I know, because I tried it.
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I still do it to keep a record of my experiences, for later (I have since=
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learned that many people do this). But the things I have tried to <I>writ=
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e</I>
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for others turned out rather awful. It takes skill and training, lots of
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training, to produce something worthwhile! That's what experienced writer=
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s
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have told me. They also kindly offered to help me develop my skills. Perh=
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aps
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someday...
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<P>All this has been now several years past. You may have noticed, from
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the above, how helpful people in the reading subculture are towards newco=
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mers;
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they really go to great lengths to help you, <I>if you are prepared to
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learn</I>. They have little patience with intellectual laziness. And you
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know something: I too, quite automatically and selfevidently adopted the
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rules of the subculture, and I too find myself instructing newcomers in
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the noble art and its cultural premises. And I <I>am</I> writing texts
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that are read by people, about things existing and non-existing, about
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people living and dead and imaginary, in the comforting knowledge that,
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by my writing, all this <I>does</I> exist, and all these people <I>do</I>=
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live, in a very real sense. Figure that. It is indeed better to give than=
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to receive!
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<P>As a final word, I have referred to the community of reading people
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-- literates, they call themselves -- as a subculture. Numerically this
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is true, but I find it unfortunate. They should be the mainstrain culture=
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!
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Think, however, of the effort required to teach the <I>whole population</=
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I>
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the art of reading! This would be obviously quite unthinkable. Imagine,
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a fully literate population! Bullshit. So, a subculture it will undoubted=
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ly
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remain, and I have been fortunate and privileged to have been able to joi=
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n
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it. You can too -- you only have to <I>want</I> it hard enough.
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<P>Welcome to my world!
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<BR>
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<ADDRESS>
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Martin Vermeer</ADDRESS>
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<ADDRESS>
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mv@liisa.pp.fi</ADDRESS>
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<P>Any similarity to real circumstances in the real world is wholly and
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fully intentional.
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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--==_Exmh_20628104160--
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