Monday, June 30, 2008

Thank you notes, penmanship and Isaac Asimov

A comment on the etiquette of writing thank yous posting--"Computers are not so slowly changing what it means to get mail. Many schools no longer teach penmanship but do teach keyboarding" brought to mind one of my favorite short stories. If you are looking for a good read and one with some "meat" in it as well, try Asimov's short story "The Feeling of Power." It's available at http://downlode.org/Etext/power.html

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I take it we can assume you are finished with classes by the number of postings going up? Not that I'm complaining but just a little pity on those of us who would like to read all you are writing. My boss occasionally likes me to do what he is paying me for.

I don't normally like science fiction which Asimov is known for but if you tell me there is something to this story I'll take a look.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link. I somehow missed this one and it really is one of his best.

Anonymous said...

Isaac Asimov is one of my favorite authors. I think I own more than 100 of his books. While it is true that he wrote mostly science fiction, and is known mostly for science fiction, he also wrote about many other things, including real science, religion, bible, Shakespeare, etc.

This story is pretty good and not so science-fiction-ey.

Mark

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed the story but it doesn't sound so science fictiony to me. Almost sounds as if it could be describing now or at least a few years from now. Kind of scary that Asimov got it so right.

Anonymous said...

I have taught "The Fun they Had" several times. The students always enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

Shocked my younger son. he was complaining he was bored so I gave him this to read. He still can't understand where his mother could have found a story he'd like. Score one for the mothers!