Notes

[Gerda Grice]

On Tue, 8 Feb 2000, Denis Salter wrote:

Hello, Denis,

On my lap at the moment I have a copy of the Coles Notes for
Sophocles'_King Oedipus, _Oedipus at Colonus_ and _Antigone__
and a copy of Cliffs Notes on the same three plays--although on the
cover of the Cliffs Notes, the first of the plays is titled _Oedipus the
King_.  What is interesting is that the text inside the covers of the two
sets of Notes is identical, despite the fact that Cliffs names Robert J.
Milch of Brooklyn College as the author of the Notes, while Coles names
as author only "Coles Editorial Board".  Cliffs names 1965 as the
copyright date; in Coles, the date given is 1989. Incidentally, I purchased
both sets of Notes in Toronto several years ago, probably in the early 90s.

I have no idea if there ever was a Mr. Cole (or Coles).  Apparently,
though, Coles Notes have been with us since 1948.  Opposite the Contents
page of the Coles Notes, the following note appears:  "COLES NOTES have
been an indispensible aid to students on five continents since 1948."
This, along with the duplication of text that I found in the Cliffs Notes,
suggests that Coles Notes are not a Canadian phenomenon.

Sorry I don't have any Cliffs or Coles Notes on Shakespeare plays
around.



 > Dear Colleagues:
>
> Does anyone know the origin of Cole's notes?  Current editions
> make it seem as though the series originated in Canada.
> Was there a Mr Cole? Cole's bookstores are bewildered by questions.
>
> In the U.S., I believe that they don't have Cole's but rather
> Cliff's Notes.  I can't get Cole's notes and Cliff's notes
> for the same book, for comparative purposes.
>
> I can't get Cliff's Notes, so far, in Canada. Any suggestions?
>
> I am only interested in Cliff and Cole when they are reductive versions
> of Shakespeare and Shakespeare's plays.
>
> Does anyone know if Shakespeare's plays were turned into
> Classic Comics?  The comics stores here have been singularly
> unhelpful. If they are still being produced, is Shakespeare in
> the series?
>
> Doubtless there is a university research library that has rare
> Classic Comics of Shakespeare in its Rare Books division.
>
>
> **************
>
> I thank the many people who helped me with the letter that I
> sent to *University Affairs* and that I circulated on CanDrama.
> It should appear in the March or April edition, or might get
> pushed into May.  I think March or April would be more
> strategic.
>
> BTW, they cut very little and, as cuts often do, they made for a
> stronger letter.  It was simply too long. It will be at their
> maximum of 700 words.
>
>
> I think that this January issue of *University Affairs* calls
> for several other letters:
>
> 1) The suggestion that the Arts (as in Liberal Arts) are not
> as expensive to run as other disciplines is silly. As a colleague
> said this morning, the library/libraries are one of the indis-
> pensable and expensive "Labs" for the Liberal Arts.
>
> 2) The descriptions provided of the next generation of scholars who will
> be "highly professionalised" make me queasy.  Some definitions are pro-
> vided for what "professional" means; many other important definitions
> are overlooked, and the "word" becomes (deliberately?) mystified.
> I begin to think of social and genetic engineering.
>
>
> 3) The key issue, known since at least the beginning of the
> postwar period, is that universities are not predominantly
> preoccupied with the discovery and/or creation of knowledge
> and its dissemination. The key issue is that they are corporations
> with administrative structures that, in some areas, correspond
> to corporate ones. University administrations, particularly in
> ones that are governed by the top-down model, are in the business
> of creating and marketing information. (Information and Knowledge
> are different entities.) There is one reductive, easy, but I
> think valid way to test this proposition: in the 50s to the
> early 80s, students were called students; in the mid 80s to
> the mid 90s they were called clients; and now they are called
> consumers (of information).
>
> 4) Though the ideologically-charged vocabulary of Accountability
> Criteria, Performance Indicators and the like remains out of
> sight, it won't remain there for long.  I think we should think
> ahead of time about what we would accept and what we wouldn't.
> The information [sic] from some levels of governments and/or
> from university administrations should be made available to us
> soon, for the debate is going to be long and, I fear,
> fractious. I would be interested in knowing how other versions
> of these surveillance expectations and techniques have affected
> the production of information in other cultures.  I gather that
> British Professors have worked with some sort of model for several years
> and universities' budgets have in whole or in part been determined by
> point-rating. I do know that procedures of this type are used
> at the University of Malta.
>
>
> Denis Salter.
>
> "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
> It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
> Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon."
> --John Logie Baird (1925)
>
> Denis Salter
> 4965, avenue Connaught
> Notre Dame De Grace
> Montreal [Qc]
> H4V 1X4
> (514) 487 7309
> NO FAX
> cyws at musica.mcgill.ca
>