Expected, but still...
Apr. 4th, 2008 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpSoon after joining the microcomputer revolution with my first "real" computer (an Osborne 1) I acquired a 300-baud modem at a garage sale near where we lived at the time, in Jacksonville, Florida. The modem was positively antediluvean, equipped with rubber cups so as to better hold the phone handset in place during use.
Some time soon after going online, I was invited to join the Byte Information Exchange, which was intended to compete with fledgling online services such as The Source and CompuServe. As an on-and-off writer for Byte, I rated an invitation to the system while it was being beta-tested, and a comped account afterward.
One of the names I kept running into on BIX in those days was 'hkenner' who could always be counted upon to say something brilliant. I later learned that the writer was one Hugh Kenner, whose knowledge of literature, and of Ezra Pound, and James Joyce in particular, was superhuman to begin with. And if you were to throw his not inconsiderable math and computer skills into the pot, the resulting stew was quite potent, indeed.
Somewhere in the late 80s, on a trip to Atlanta, I managed to arrange my work schedule so as to meet with Kenner, who had invited me to come dine with him and his wife at his home, should I be able to find the time.
I remember a tallish, slim man who smoked, and who introduced me to my first vodka martini. I haven't had many such martinis since (I'm more of a gin-and-vermouth kinda guy), but when I think of that evening, it is with fondness.
Learning of his death - even though he died over 4 years ago - has put me back into that pensive state that I've been trying to avoid of late.
I should try to unearth Mazes, a book of his essays, and crack it.
Cheers...
Some time soon after going online, I was invited to join the Byte Information Exchange, which was intended to compete with fledgling online services such as The Source and CompuServe. As an on-and-off writer for Byte, I rated an invitation to the system while it was being beta-tested, and a comped account afterward.
One of the names I kept running into on BIX in those days was 'hkenner' who could always be counted upon to say something brilliant. I later learned that the writer was one Hugh Kenner, whose knowledge of literature, and of Ezra Pound, and James Joyce in particular, was superhuman to begin with. And if you were to throw his not inconsiderable math and computer skills into the pot, the resulting stew was quite potent, indeed.
Somewhere in the late 80s, on a trip to Atlanta, I managed to arrange my work schedule so as to meet with Kenner, who had invited me to come dine with him and his wife at his home, should I be able to find the time.
I remember a tallish, slim man who smoked, and who introduced me to my first vodka martini. I haven't had many such martinis since (I'm more of a gin-and-vermouth kinda guy), but when I think of that evening, it is with fondness.
Learning of his death - even though he died over 4 years ago - has put me back into that pensive state that I've been trying to avoid of late.
I should try to unearth Mazes, a book of his essays, and crack it.
Cheers...
