--- In [email protected], turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], tartbrain <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "sparaig" <LEnglish5@> wrote: > > > > > > Aside from a few sociopaths and/or trolls, I suspect that > > > you can make the claim that everyone who bothers to post > > > on the internet has some stake in what they are talking > > > about. > > > > True. Otherwise why take the time to post it. > > I am going to disagree with both sparaig and tartbrain > here...respectfully...by pointing out that their argument > may be based on the writer's feelings about the writing > process. > > I write for a living. I am a fast enough typist so that > there is almost no lag between what I think and it appear- > ing onscreen as text. So I do it for fun. It's a way of > concretizing the abstract ideas that flit through my mind, > to see whether they have any lasting meaning for me other > than as Just Another Flit-Thought.
Trouble is, the ideas that flit through your mind and make it into your posts here are generally of pretty low quality. They're very often shallow, unfocused, and lacking in logic, insight, and above all, self- knowledge. The one you made today about "equality" is a good example. Not only did it make little sense because you didn't think through the different meanings of "equality" in different contexts, it showed your typical inability to recognize that you were demonstrating the same behavior you were criticizing. I don't know whether you'd be capable of better work if you took more time with what you write, but your slapdash way of recording and then posting your ideas doesn't reflect well on you either as a thinker or as a writer. It also reveals your contempt for your audience that you throw together posts with so little thought. > I write for fun. As Curtis has explained eloquently on this > forum, I also write to figure things out, for myself. And > then, having figured them out, I move on, and possibly > figure them out a different way tomorrow, and yet another > way the next day. I have no lingering attachment to any > of them. This doesn't ring true at all, because you tend to repeat the same ideas over and over again. And your presentation doesn't improve with repetition; it just changes its clothes. I suspect Curtis takes a lot more time and care with most of his posts, not because he isn't a fast typist but because he thinks that if something is worth saying at all, it's worth saying well. And I seriously doubt he has any less fun than you do. In fact, I'll bet he has *more* fun producing a piece of writing that he can take satisfaction in because it expresses interesting ideas clearly and coherently. > I honestly believe that the people who make the claim that > one cannot write an idea on the Internet without having > some investment in it, or in wanting to convert others to > the validity or supremacy of that idea are stating their > *own* limitations, not mine. Sometimes I really write just > for the fuck of it, and for the fun of it. Maybe those are *your* limitations. Seems to me that, as a professional writer, you ought at least to have enough investment in what you write to do your best with it. Even if you were to change your mind tomorrow about a particular idea, you ought to try to express it as well as you can *today*. I think you're afraid to do that. You aren't willing to take that risk because you're afraid that your best really isn't that good. And you may be right.
