Conference noted::sf

    It's L Ron Hubbard.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    re .0:  No, and I have no real desire to read the series... call
    me prejudiced.  Anything connected with L.Ron Hubbard and/or the
    Scientologists seems suspect to me.  
    
    re .1:  I have a question -- just how did Ol' Elron manage to release
    a Newly-Revised, 1987 verion of "Dianetics"?  He *died* (check that--
    his death was *announced*) in 1986!
    
    					andrew

    re .0
    
    Well, I have Vols 1-6.  [Once I start something I *have* to finish
    it].
    
    1-5 came out regularly [I started reading when 3 was a couple of
    weeks old], 6 took a while and 7 is taking forever.
    
    It's a satire and you have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy
    it.  However, at around 3 or 4 you strt getting a little tired of
    just how much Earthen lifestyle is "parodied".  It's beginning to
    sound like a statement along the lines of:
    
    	"Well Earth is so screwed up you might as well forget it."
    	"Your planet does, however, look lovely from space and would
    	remain such if you didn't keep mucking it up."
    
    Which could then be construed as an upcoming ad for Scientology.
    It does, however, do a good job in a couple of places.  I particularly
    like how each time the pro/an-tagonist [the story is told from the
    viewpoint of the bad guy as he is writing his confession to his
    heinous crimes] comes up against the good-guy, is thwarted and still
    thinks he [the bad guy] is the smartest thing since sentient life
    evolved.
    
    BTW - It $17 each in the US but I find them for $13 at Lauriats.

    Re .2:
    
    Well, maybe he wrote it posthumously. :-)
    
    Actually, although I have mucho suspicions, since it takes anywhere
    from 0.5 to 1.0 years to get a book through final production, and
    since books are often, like cars, dated ahead, he _might_ have written
    it just before kicking the bucket.  On the other hand....
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    Well, he supposedly wrote the entire "Mission Earth" dekalogy
    before he died, so it's possible that he revised DIANETICS
    before his death as well.
    
    But actually, it's quite likely that the revisions were made by
    others, but that the book is mostly his original work, so his name
    stays on the by-line.
    
    --- jerry

    I am enjoying it but as someone esle stated you have
    to be in the right frame of mind. Volumes 5-6 started
    to fall down a little bit but it is high camp SF.
    There is a pre-volume too.
    

    Well I have all ten now. Yes, it was worth the expense, but I can't
    help feeling his organization drained every dime out of it.
    You really have to admit it was a great spoof. I also enjoyed
    Battlefield Earth, and am glad they didn't break it into multiple
    books as well!

    I wonder what he's writing next after the dekology.  Certainly
    something to be said for this Dianetics stuff.
                       
    						Don

    I just saw the first volume of the dekalogy in *paperback*.  I suppose
    I should have known it would come to this.
    
    len.
    

    According to the latest SF Chronicle, Bridge (Hubbard's
    pseudo-publisher) is planning a major marketing push this year of
    the paperback dekology,

< Note 467.10 by SCOMAN::RUDMAN "Books almost for sale." >
                             -< Posthumous prose >-

<    I wonder what he's writing next after the dekology.  Certainly
<    something to be said for this Dianetics stuff.
                       
<    						Don


	Some friends of mine got involved with the scientologists in Denver
	back around 1972-3. what a bunch of bullcrap!! They had a machine they
	used so that a "clear" person could audit a non-clear person and find
	out the things that were wrong with them. Anything not agreeing with
	scientology was "wrong". People would sign lifetime/eternal contracts
	to go with seaorg and work Hubbard's yacht as crew. They finally got
	point of telling that lying to a non-scientologist was OK cause they
	weren't really important. They even said those who were "clear: could
	leviate. liesl

    Please don't waste your time or money on the man.
    
    Nuff said

>Note 209.35                     Whither Ellison? 
>SKITZD::MESSENGER
>   ...
>    This attitude is understandable, given that he quotes LRH as saying:
>    "...the only way to make any money in this world is to start a new
>    kind of psychotherapy or a new religion." before he started
>    Scientology.
>    				- HBM
               
    I had heard that L. Ron had bet another sf writer (Robert Silverberg
    comes to mind, but I could easily be wrong) that he could make it
    rich by starting a new kind of psychotherapy or religion.
                                                             
                                                   
                  /
                 (  ___
                  ) ///
                 /
    

    RE: .15
    
    Hubbard was a member of the Manana Club, a writers social 
    club/workshop/general bull session which met regularly in
    Los Angeles during the late `40s, early `50s. The Manana Club was
    started by Robert Heinlein and also included as members Ray Bradbury
    and Anthony Boucher among other notables.
    
    The story -- possibly apocryphal -- goes that Heinlein once said
    something to the effect that the easiest way to make a million dollars
    in the U.S. was to start a new religion (and, if you read STRANGER
    IN A STRANGE LAND, you'll see that he thought on that *a lot.*). 
    According to reports, Hubbard got a gleam in his eye ... and the rest
    is history.
    
    Fred

                
                Just thought I'd mention...
                
                I just  finished  book7  of Invasion Earth, and I
                _love_ the series!    Not  as good as Battlefield
                Earth, but still a good read!  I started out with
                paperbacks  (they  are  releasing one  every  2-3
                months), but I found a store  with the hardcovers
                for  $10,  which is rather surprising 'cause  the
                publisher offered to buy back the hardcovers from
                all  bookstores  that still had them, and most of
                them sent the books back.  Well, off to read book
                #3  of  the Mallorean and then to buy 8,9 and 10!
                I love Soltan  Gris  (even though I've seen salad
                bars with higher IQ's...)
                
                

    The story -- possibly apocryphal -- goes that Heinlein once said
    something to the effect that the easiest way to make a million dollars
    in the U.S. was to start a new religion (and, if you read STRANGER
    IN A STRANGE LAND, you'll see that he thought on that *a lot.*). 
    According to reports, Hubbard got a gleam in his eye ... and the rest
    is history.

	=============================================== the version I heard
was that it was John Campbell and Hubbard who were having this chat. 
Whichever way it was, it sure seems likely that it took place. First came
that goofy Scientology stuff, than the scarier Dianetics bull.

	How does this guy manage to keep coming out with books? He must
have been writing like a madman before he died. Or has his name become a
"housename" like Kenneth Robeson?
						bh

    Re .18 (bh):
    
>	How does this guy manage to keep coming out with books? He must
>have been writing like a madman before he died. Or has his name become a
>"housename" like Kenneth Robeson?
 
    Both are possible.  Hubbard was one of those folk who wrote almost
    automatically and nearly as fast as he could think.  He bought paper
    in rolls, stuck one end in an electric typewriter and generally
    kept writing until he finished, nonstop.  Then he'd cut the stories
    into individual pages and send them to his editors.  (He had to
    use an electric typewriter; manuals were too slow for him.)  If
    he'd gotten a word processor, he might have been able to increase
    his output even more.  So no, it's not surprising he was prolific.
    
    However, it's also possible that others are emending or extending
    his work; I don't know.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    RE .18
    
    With the exception of the decalogy that is being released, all of the
    books being released by Bridge Publications are re-releases of LRH's
    works.
    
    RE .19
    
    Each of these is a very distinct possibility.  The third (often
    speculated) is that LRH is not dead at all.  If you all will remember,
    he "died" about ten years ago, too.

    Mission Earth Decalog Series, paperback volumes for sale:
    
    Vol 1. The Invader's Plan
    Vol 2. Black Genesis
    Vol 5. Fortune of Fear
    Vol 6. Death Quest
    Vol 9. Villainy Victorious
    Vol 10. The Doomed Planet
    
    $2.50 each, all for $10
    
    Dave Hughes, DTN 296-5209, RCAV8R::HUGHES or NODEX::HUGHES