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From: chabot@miles.DEC (All God's chillun got guns)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: re: SF Bar Tales
Message-ID: <3600@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Aug-85 13:20:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.3600
Posted: Tue Aug 13 13:20:28 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Aug-85 05:44:52 EDT
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 22

Good heavens!  We can't forget Canterbury Tales.

It's an ancient technique and it still can excite and entertain us.  A campfire,
an inn, an bar, some place where strangers meet and are on equal footing.  And
even when tales aren't exchanged, *something* happens at these gatherings.
What adds the charm to "The Trouble with Tribbles" but this very feature, how
else could we have that brawl in the bar (where else would UFP'ers be drinking
next to Klingons?).  In _Dragon_Waiting_ when all arrive at the Swiss inn, my
pulse elevated because I knew this was going to be a place of action.  The
Prancing Pony in _The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring_, where spies and friends are
found, where the party of hobbits meets the tall mysterious stranger and Frodo
makes that scene by disappearing after dancing off the table. 

A recent mainstream example of tales told in a bar or club is P G Wodehouse--
I remember at least one volume of short stories where this was the vehicle.
I can also remember a Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsy story that starts out with a 
stranger relating his strange history in a bar.

Is there any collection of Gavagan's Bar stuff in print these days?  I've been
looking, off and on, with not much success.

L S Chabot   ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot   chabot%amber.dec@decwrl.arpa