Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 15:22:57 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: a few quotes - stray thoughts - in relation to this list


Dear Radjika, Geri, and all,
	I've been reading these messages avidly.  I'm in the middle of
reading "The Nurture Assumption" by ?? Harris (can't recall her first name
right now and don't have the book with me), and my enjoyment of and
ability to learn from and think about this book comes partly from what
I've read in reviews about Harris herself:  how she was asked to leave
Harvard because she wasn't worth investing in for a Ph.D.; how she worked
at home at her own pace because of an immune-system illness; how, as an
outsider, she was uniquely able to tell the ridiculous from the more
likely.  Her writing too is very personal--invested with humor and a
person-to-person tone and sense of commitment.  It doesn't have the
intimate quality of "The Vulnerable Observer" but it does have the sort of
"truth in observing" quality, in that she tries to give you whole
intellectual and emotional context in which her ideas developed so that
you can see the whole picture. 

	Is anyone else reading this book?  The first chapter used to be on
the NYTimes on line feature where they give you the first chapters of
interesting new books.  More later,  Anne B.