Re: to: Michael Lorrey Re: TANSTAAFL! and fnords

Philos Anthropy (anthropy@inwave.com)
Tue, 16 Dec 1997 09:08:40 -0600


Thanks for the info. :-)

Warrl kyree Tale'sedrin wrote:

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> > From: Philos Anthropy <anthropy@inwave.com>
>
> > > What does TANSTAAFL! mean and what is a fnord?
>
> TANSTAAFL is an acronym which most people get from Robert Heinlein's
> book "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" or from another source derivative
> therefrom. I don't know if Heinlein originated it or not. It stands
> for:
>
> There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
>
> Fnord is, in the Wilson/Shea trilogy "Illuminatus", a meaningless
> word that is printed scattered through the text of most published
> matter. In the world of this fantasy/science-fiction/parody series,
> children are trained using hypnotic techniques to not see this word.
> This creates a conflict within the brain, a source of stress. The
> authorities (the ones that are aware of the fnords) control the
> reader's reaction to any printed matter by controlling the ratio of
> fnords to other words -- something completely free of fnords is so
> unusual that a positive emotional reaction is virtually guaranteed,
> whereas anything critical of the government is guaranteed to contain
> a lot of fnords to generate a strong negative reaction.
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