h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A654239

In the role I play as the resident communist spy on h2g2... I present an entry concerning property, language, and short stories

A quick search on google shows that the book is The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.

sorry.

nope - that's useful

Wow, good one! Makes you stop and think about the language you toss around every day.

Why isn't this suitable for the Edited Guide? Why isn't this discussion in Peer Review? Looks like you've provided adequate balance to the entry with the little disclaimer: "It is not this entry's place to discuss the many philosophical, political, social, and economic arguments that have been made both for and against..."

Did you not intend this entry for the Edited Guide, or did it get moved to the Alt Writing Workshop from Peer Review? Usually the Editors put that little note, "this discussion has been dumped in Alt Writing Workshop." Just curious. This is something to celebrate if people are intentionally *using* the Alt Writing Workshop, instead of it being an Alt Sin Bin where all discussions end with "Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'The Alternative Writing Workshop'."

Nope - put this here myself. I figured it probably wasn't factual enough for the Edited Guide.

Thanks for the kind words...

I also saw your entry here on Recursive Laughter and deduced that you were intentionally submitting things to the Alt Writing Workshop.

Since you're one of the few using the Alt Writing Workshop, and thus expressing an interest in polishing entries with or without approval from the Edited Guide, what do you think about this idea: I'm wondering if we could get a group of people to publicize quality unedited guide entries by suggesting a few pages every week on a central page. Sort of a weblog of unedited h2g2 guide entries that we think are noteworthy. The central page for publicizing stuff could be AGGH (the Alt Galaxial Guide for Hitchhikers), or possibly a column in the h2g2 Post if we could persuade shazzPRME, or many a different page altogether?

With luck, and with updates every week or every few days, the page would be a place readers would visit regularly. We might generate more interest in the Alt Writing Workshop, and more interest in using h2g2 as a place where fiction, poetry, interviews, satire, absurdity, avant-garde cat recipes, whatever good stuff gets ignored by the Edited Guide, will still be seen and appreciated.

I haven't been able to convince any one person to pick up the ball and run with this idea, but I thought if we got a half dozen or more people willing to put a small amount of effort into this, then we could have a nice collective accomplishment. The small amount of effort would involve browsing through unedited guide entries (which some of already do for our own pleasure) and finding one or two every week that are worth shouting about.

What do you say?

I was thinking of the h2g2 post myself, actually. It could be a simple enough idea - trawl the AWW for entries - take them up, 'subedit' them (*very* lightly), and have one entry a week displayed in the post. Once an entry is in the post, move the thread out of the AWW. Once there's a "drain" in here, it'll be much less of a graveyard, I reckon...

Interesting. The idea of sub-editing is scary (would require more effort, consideration of who is "worthy" to be an unofficial subeditor, etc), but these are the kinds of ideas I was hoping to get aired. I'm coralling a few other interested people to the AGGH at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A506675 if you're interested. Just meander through the threads there and you'll find some stragglers.

I'm going to post your suggestion there and see you later...

What freaks me slightly about these old old entries is the baggage they carry with them. On the other hand, hopefully we are a step or two further on now, because of the work by AGG/GAG/CAC - but doesn't it feel like there is nothing new under the sun here?

Anyways - what to do with this?

First off - would Lucinda be interested in his AWW entries being in the Underguide? The simplest thing to do is ask him, and I will in a minute, though I don't know how often he comes here.

Secondly - the entry itself. I really liked it until it turned into fiction. I understand the need for an example, but I found this particular example irritating and dull. If Lucinda comes back maybe he could cut it. Otherwise I might be interested in putting together a joint entry but taking a more familiar piece of prose and 'translating' it. It is a while since I read 'The Dispossessed' (and dreary and tedious it was too) but I do still have a copy.

So - what do y'all think. UG as it is? UG with some pruning? Or a joint Lucinda/Ben entry with a shorter piece of prose translated?

If the latter - can anyone think of a suitable bit of prose?

Ben
*with the weight of history on the shoulders*

I agree about the fiction bit - I was rereading it a little while back, and thinking about how it dragged.

I can't really say yeay or nay without finding out what this UnderGuide thing is. Got links?

Start here, mainly because this page has links to the relevant h2g2 pages and conversations. Most of the conversations are here on h2g2 not on the MSN group.

http://groups.msn.com/theH2G2Underguide

Ben

Well, I removed my entries from PR, so I guess I'll remove these from APR, at least while it's unclear what will happen to stuff there. Maybe later?

You may like to read the following:
F51226?thread=247412&post=2984244#p2983262

Though whether it will hasten your decision to remove your stuff from AWW or whether it will make you decide to leave it there is something I am curious to find out!

B