Lists and Files

[David Andreas Alderud]

I'm new to Python, started yesterday, is there a good way to handle lists
and files?

For example:

    stooges = ['val1', 'val2', 1, [['val2_1', 'val2_2', 0], ['val2_1',
'val2_2', 0]]]
    fds = open("stooges", "w")
    # fds.write(stooges) doesn't work, maybe I can encapsulate and pack it
to some other format, other than str that is, one that works?
    fds.write(str(stooges))
    fds.close()
    fds = open("stooges", "r")
    no_longer_stooges = list(fds.read())
    print no_longer_stooges
        =>
            ['[', "'", 'v', 'a', 'l', '1', "'", ',', ' ', "'", 'v', 'a',
'l', '2', "'", ',', ' ', '1', ',', ' ', '[', '[', "'", 'v', 'a', 'l', '2',
'_', '1', "'", ',', ' ', "'", 'v', 'a', 'l', '2', '_', '2', "'", ',', ' ',
'0', ']', ',', ' ', '[', "'", 'v', 'a', 'l', '2', '_', '1', "'", ',', ' ',
"'", 'v', 'a', 'l', '2', '_', '2', "'", ',', ' ', '0', ']', ']', ']']

and that's not what I want, I could write a parser for the dynamic data but
I rather not if there is a good way to handle it.
Someone _must_ have stumbled across this problem before me, as it seams like
a common thing to do, and solved it, so I rather not duplicate the effort,
any hits and pointers or full solutions?

/Kind regards,
    David A. Alderud