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From: mkinyon@natasha.iusb.indiana.edu (Mike E. Kinyon)
Subject: Re: Black's gender
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References: <67910.mamster@pomona.edu> <DHDMKA.LJJ@sun2.iusb.indiana.edu> <4797vp$aft@cutter.clas.ufl.edu> <GDR11.95Nov2103329@stint.cl.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 14:02:16 GMT
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In article <GDR11.95Nov2103329@stint.cl.cam.ac.uk>,
Gareth Rees <gdr11@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:

>People seem to get quite uncomfortable when a work of fiction refuses to
>divulge the sex of the characters, and they can put a lot of effort into
>deducing what it must be (the apparent clue from the "pronouns" verb is
>obviously a mistake on Graham's part).

Yes, indeed, it is surprising how upset some people seem to be by this.
There seems to be attitude that every aspect of interactive fiction
is a puzzle, right down to determining one's gender.  

[Reference to Delany novel deleted.]

Thanks for the pointer; I'll have to take a look at it.

>Perhaps the Internet will change this.  After all, few of the readers of
>rec.games.int-fiction know whether I'm really a man or a woman
>masquerading under a male name, but (I hope) you can get something out
>of reading my posts without needing to know, or even caring.

Actually, I have been assuming that you are an AI program.  The Internet
is a never-ending Turing test.

