Ron, At 01:12 PM 12/17/2004, you wrote: >>Well, one way the policy of review hurts is that there a lot less books >>written about Baha'i related topics, than there would be without review. Why >>invest the time and effort to write a book when it may never see the light of >>day because of review?<<
I know of at least a few instances where that happened. >>On top of all that, the Baha'i books that are published are a lot less >>creative than they otherwise would have been, and so we get a lot of the same >>kind of books written over and over again, rather than new kinds of thinking, >>which would be more interesting and useful and therefore help to attract a >>lot more seekers to the faith.<< Personally, I am not sure. I think that, even without review, most of the published materials would be pretty lame anyway. For instance, if you are a "Christian" writer, and you want your books to be promoted through the usual channels and sold in "Christian" bookstores, you had better not make too many controversial statements. >>Yes, the internet helps. But the internet is not optimal for all kinds of >>communication, and internet communication has its down sides, as we all have >>seen.<< Eventually, I don't think there will be a difference between the Internet and a library. Most American colleges and universities already have online data bases (available only to faculty and students). They contain digitized journals, abstracts, and entire books. Would the Baha'i materials have been covered by review when those materials were in hard copy form, but not covered by review after they are placed on the Internet? There are also a growing number of online refereed journals. Mark A. Foster * http://markfoster.net "Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger" -- Abbie Hoffman __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
