Jeffrey said:
> I do. I think the simplest explanation for such behavior isn't mental
> illness, but just plain wonky human nature.
I don't see what he might want to achieve in that case though.
- The obvious motive might be trying to make lots of people angry, in
which case he seems rather inept compared to such masters as "Hotblack
DeSoto", who infested the Culture and lead me to lose my cool to such
an extent that I actually flamed someone ("You have demonstrated
yourself to be rude, stupid, racist, incoherent in thought, ineloquent
in speech, devoid of even the slightest traces of virtue or even wit...
you in fact earned... first my indifference, then my pity and now
finally my utter, absolute contempt"). In constrast, I haven't even
come close to saying such things to Mark - he seems instead to induce
mild puzzlement when I actually read his messages, which is very
infrequently now. If Mark were intending to troll, I think he'd appear
more engaged with the regular threads here and would be a little more
insulting towards others.
- Perhaps, as has been suggested previously, he's trying to find the
limits of our tolerance for erratic behaviour. I think if this were the
case he would've said so by now as it seems that attitudes towards him
have more or less stabilised.
- A third possibility is that he's attempting to provide a strange and
amusing voice from beyond the usual frame of reference of Brin-L, but I
don't find the things he says particularly strange or amusing (when
compared, for example, to Mariama Xi, whose posts to the Culture I
always enjoy wri^H^H^Hreading). I also doubt this is the case because
he is posting such an avalanche of email, which seems rather extreme if
the intentions are whimsical.
Subtracting these options from our list of motives, I think the most
likely remaining ones are that he is either mentally ill or else
pretending to be so (as happens with disturbing regularity on the Net,
it seems). Anyway, I propose using the direct approach: Mark, why have
you been posting in the way you have over the last month or so?
Rich
VFP Worth A Shot
