Talk:John Barnes (author)

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First, I corrected Barnes's area of expertise: he is trained in and taught theatre, focusing on technical/production history (I didn't put that last bit in, since I can't find the authority for his grad training). He is certainly familiar with semiotics, but I doubt that he would describe himself as a full-time semiotician, especially since (IIRC) he's left teaching. I'll dig up his academic history and post it as part of the bio.

Second, I wonder whether there's a need to reproduce that whole passage on his marriages--a summary with maybe a crucial quotation should do the job. In this form, the article suggests that the most interesting thing about JB is gossip about his marital history--this for a guy with a pretty distinguished writing career. When I feel stronger, I'll put something together--I've reviewed most of his work for Locus and can supply at least a reasonable annotated bibilography and an account of his themes and obsessions. RLetson 21:00, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Well I'll be dipped--Barnes does call himself a semiotician (on his Amazon profile page)--though I'd maintain that he's about half joking. So the contributor who added the line about "work[ing] in the field of semiotics" might want to consider not necessarily reversion but a way of including JB's self-description--I'd suggest something like this:

Barnes has a doctorate in theatre and for several years taught at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, focusing on technical/production history. He has also described himself (perhaps partly in jest) as a "consulting semiotician for business and industry." (insert note and link to the Amazon profile [[1]]) (Probably want to include the fact that he is no longer teaching but [maybe] writing full time, if that can be confirmed.)

My apologies for doing an edit off the top of my head, without checking the facts. (But it really is a half-joke--"consulting semiotician" is not a standard gig, even for a liberal-arts Ph.D.) RLetson 04:56, 21 April 2006 (UTC)