HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H0059 6/20/00 "WEB VS LIBRARY FOR RESEARCH" ======================================================= > From: "Andrey & Elina" Subject: Jude the Obscure Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 12:42:39 +0300 Dear Sirs! I need a little advisory help in searching for more materials about Jude the Obscure. What I have to do is to write the term paper "Symbols in Jude the Obscure", and in this connection could you possibly guide me to the sites where I can obtain more information about the specified above theme. I have already found quite a helpful research paper by Holly Davis "Romanticism in Jude the Obscure", but somehow cannot find more precise essays corresponding to my theme, at least more of research papers devoted to Jude the Obscure. Essays or articles - anything that might be found about Jude the Obscure - I would be greatly obliged to you if you could write the names of the sites. Thanks you so much in advance. Sincerely yours, Elina Taube ========== From: Helen Maddison Subject: RE: Jude the Obscure Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 12:12:59 +0100 Dear Andrey & Elina, Just a quick email for you. At this moment I have not located anything relevant on Jude, all I seem to get are adverts for the film!! I am having the same problem with Far from the Madding Crowd, all I seem to be getting is information on how to buy the book. I will keep your email in my inbox, so if I find anything, I will of course pass it on. If you could do the same for me I would really appreciate it!! Kind Regards Helen ========== Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 08:29:51 -0400 From: Shannon Rogers Subject: RE: Jude the Obscure Dear Elina and Helen, I might be a little cranky this morning--it's still early--but has it occured to anyone to actually pick up a real book or journal, in a library, rather than merely surfing the web? Old fashioned, yes, but it would probably yield a lot more information a lot quicker. Not everything is actually available, published and complete, on the web. Plus, there are no ads in a library! A begininng suggestion would be Ruth Firor's _Folkways in Thomas Hardy_ since many of the symbolic things that appear in his novels have a basis in old legends and myths. Happy hunting! Best, Shannon Rogers Department of History St. Joseph's University ========== Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 11:18:18 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: RE: Jude the Obscure Greetings *Jude* hunters, Just a quickie to say that you'll find some short snippets on *Jude* on TTHA Vice Presidents' Box (page). Shanta Dutta & Bob Schweik both have extracts from their longer works and, re FFMC, I have part of my Penguin World Classics Introduction also on that page. Clearly, for copyright reasons the full texts cannot be published on the internet and in the case of e-texts there are, in any case, severe drawbacks. See Bob Schweik's "Caution" on use of e-text on TTHA LINKS page where, no doubt, you'll find most of the relevant works on Hardy included among the 200+ linked subpages listed there. Cheers, Rosemarie Morgan. ========== From: "Andrey & Elina" Subject: Jude the Obscure Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 19:04:46 +0300 Dear everyone who responded to my SOS! Thank you Rosemarie and Helen (OK Helen, its settled, I will help you as well, when I will be having anything relevant to your theme. I have done already 3 works on Hardy (Thomas Hardy's Tragic Muse (Emma as the source of Hardy's inspiration) and Thomas Hardy's Symbolic Imagery) if you want to read them, please contact me). I really appreciated your helpful messages, as for Shannon's advise for "picking up" a journal or any other relevant source in hard cover, I felt even a little offended for the way it was put, because I am not a teenage or any thoughtless youngster. I live in Latvia, the former USSR country, where though the outward appearance of the country changed, a lot of things remained the same. Imagine that I have to write a paper of 50-70 pages long, and that there are only 2 books available on Hardy in the National Library. I know the way to there, first of all because my mother works there, and the other reason why I know what sitting in the library for hours means is that it is comparatively recently our people have obtained access to the Internet - we have even never known what it is (Soviet system did not accept it), so all my school years and present University years were not spent in vain - all where I was getting information - much of it from the libraries. And my sincere request to all the members of your noble society was not because I am lazy to go to the library, but only because on Hardy there are brief remarks in Anthologies and other sources which do not deal with scrutinized investigation. Yes, we have pretty much stuff on Hemingway, Faulkner, Shakespeare - on a lot of authors but not on the one who I have undertaken to write 3 term papers and next year will be trying to take my degree by presenting the final work on Thomas Hardy. I have studied him a lot and know many things and like him, and exactly for this reason I have become a member of your society. Yes, at times you speak like real professionals knowing the field perfectly, but I am only studying - saturating the knowledge and someday will be able to talk to you like equals. That is why please - do not be angry for this "modern" way of getting information. I assure you that I am not one of those students who is just hanging around and dreaming of cribbing or rewriting senselessly the papers or anything. I am taking all the work very seriously, maybe too seriously, and the English language by the way, was my dream-language when I was yet at school. I wanted desperately to know it and now I am able to read books in English, and find pleasure in reading the English authors and also in my understanding of foreign people. Please excuse me for writing all this, but I got the impression that a lot of people think that all the students do is just surfing through the web and searching for the answers not caring about the message some of them may contain. Sorry once again for taking your precious time. And anyway, thank you to everyone. Elina Taube ========== Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 14:31:00 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Jude the Obscure Congratulations Elina on your impressive endeavour! I know how hard it is to get hold of books in your part of the world: our TTHA Vice President in Romania, Elena Carp, has the very same problem. I try to send her books on Hardy whenever I have spare copies and if you send me your street mailing address I'll do the same for you. And thank you for troubling to give us your explanantion. It's true--we do receive a good many "surfers" looking for a quick "crib" and it's not always easy to distinguish between them and scholars of integrity like yourself. Do please keep in touch! With every good wish, yours admiringly, Rosemarie Morgan President ========== Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 11:21:33 -0700 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: Jude the Obscure Dear Elina, I have boundless admiration for you for undertaking your studies of Thomas Hardy with so few primary, let alone secondary, sources available to you in the library. I hope we members of this list will do our best to help serious students like yourself (and Helen) in any way we can, especially those researching under enormous difficulties in non-English speaking countries. And, by the way, you will always be dear to us for choosing Hardy over Hemingway! With Every Good Wish, Betty Cortus hardycor@mailhost2.csusm ========== Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 14:43:08 -0400 From: Shannon Rogers Subject: Re: Jude the Obscure Elina, My apologies if I sounded grumpy--I did admit it was early--but as Rosemarie points out below, it's usually the lazy student looking for a quick and easy solution by surfing the net. In this country, I suppose students are taking books for granted--they are bored by them and the thought of actually having to enter a library is a foreign notion to them. I've assigned term papers, told them websites are not allowable as references, unless those sources are not otherwise available, and they *still* go for the easy approach. It's very frustrating, but not as frustrating, I'm sure, as your own position--wanting books and having no way to get them. If only you could talk to American students and let them know what a precious commodity they take for granted. Best, Shannon Rogers ========== Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 15:42:33 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Jude the Obscure I would add a small observation to Shannon's comments: the meaning of the word "Research" inheres largely in its prefix, and the capacious room in books for encountering areas of knowledge not necessarily anticipated as we linger in them -- scanning and browsing and pondering their pages -- broadens more horizons than does selecting (pre-selected) items from the internet. How many of us, I wonder, have gone to research a specific area only to discover in our readings that we were either harbouring preconceived notions about it, and thus setting limits on our thinking, or that the excerpted (internet?) piece that had led us to the book in the first place is not, when taken in full context, at all what it had appeared to be at first sight. Best is when we end up, after exploring books, with a completely different destination from the route we had embarked upon initially. ========== From: "Andrey & Elina" > Subject: Jude the Obscure Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 17:10:05 +0300 DEAR EVERYONE! Thank you so much for real appreciation and understanding of my world. You know I feel so much grateful to everyone of you - and Rosemarie, and Betty, and Philip, and Shannon - everyone who tried to understand me. Because indeed, today was such a good morning for me-when I found out that people are still responsive and sensitive. I am really feeling that happy that at least now I have understanding and will be able to write to anyone of you and not be turned down. I feel so much obliged to anyone of those who understand that emotions take over me all of the time, but you know it is so pleasant when after hard work you hear those comforting words everyone of you said to me, at least now I will be a stimulus to go on, since as you know now it is summer and scarcely anyone of the students would be thinking of research papers now. So at least now I know that I am not alone and there are wise people who understand me now. I will keep in touch with you and follow your wise thoughts, and of course - will be perfecting myself. Sincerely yours, Elina Taube ========== From: "Sam Gesell" Subject: Re: Jude the Obscure Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 23:09:35 +0100 I haven't checked my mail for a while but I would just like to say to Elina that I think what you are doing is really brave and it is so nice to see such passion for Hardy. As a student myself I must admit I take advantage of the resources available to me and cannot imagine what it would be like without the books and articles so widely available here in England. I'd also like to point out that not all of us British students rely on the internet (contrary to popular belief!) but it cannot be forgotten that it is a very good resource for fast background info that sometimes books do not provide. Being a teenager I now what it is like to have to work tto tight schedules and even though reading is the most enjoyable thing in the world to me it is sometimes easier said than done! Now I've said my bit I shall go! I wish you all the best in your studies and hope we hear an update now and again to see how you are getting on. Best wishes Sam Gesell ==========