Hey Krimel, Matt said: If, for the sake of discussion, we stipulate Dan and I as the epitome of mealymouthed, back-talking, then Krimel, you are our exact opposite, a blunt, guileless philistine.
Now, I don't think either is true, but they represent the poorer of ways of understanding what I see as different rhetorical strategies. Krimel said: I was about to put you down for a fruit basket on 'that great day' until upon reflection I noticed that the only serious bone I have to pick with what you say is your suggestion of the possibility that I am not a blunt, guileless philistine. DM is always trying to get a pole started around here and I am willing to bet that the nearest thing to a consensus that exists on this forum is that Krimel is a blunt, guileless philistine. Matt: Well, maybe, but, ya' know. Krimel said: I took the topic of this thread to be style and if I wasn't specific I hope it was clear that I was talking for the most part about my style, rationalizing, if you will, why I write like a blunt, guileless philistine. I have an aversion to ritual and niceties but I readily concede the aversion is a personal peccadillo. I suspect that often in my zeal to eschew them I do indeed sound like a flaming asshole. Those who know me well though, would confirm that this is not just an affectation. Matt: Sure, the topic is style, but since I think rhetoric goes all the way down, people who think they are shedding "ritual" to write in a "plain style" are not shedding style qua style as they often think, but shedding one style for another. I think that kind of thought is as pretentious as whatever people might think of me. Personally, you can be as assholey as you want. I don't really care. Doesn't bother me. Krimel said: I enjoy Dan's writing. I'd love to see more of it. I don't think I am alone in that. Also I am pretty confident I am on Dan's ignore list. At some point I failed to exhibit a properly respectful tone in our exchanges, ironically as I recall it had something to do with his suggestion that I might benefit from meditation and my overly prosaic response to the suggestion. Matt: See? If you really wanted to talk to Dan, you'd change. But you're happy enough without it, so you don't. Personally, I don't know the story, but I'm not entirely sure Dan requires "respectful tones." But, like me and most people, we have only so much time and energy, and you make choices. Some people require more energy to talk to, and who those "some" are are going to be different for everybody. I don't know why some people take it so personally when a response isn't forthcoming from another poster. If I got nothing to say, I say nothing. Dan writes folders full, but is looking to only say something if it fills in X, whatever feeling it is he finally gets when it seems worth it to open his mouth, like this last time. I can respect that. Having been around the MD for a long time, though not nearly as long as Dan, we've both become more picky than we used to. Krimel said: I'm not so sure that words _are_ ideas or that they determine ideas in the way you suggest. Rather I would hope that ideas determine what words we use and that the words we use modulate the tone or shade the meaning of the ideas we express. Matt: Ah! Finally, a strictly philosophical topic. What is an idea if not words? I think the idea that ideas are pre-linguistic is a remnant of SOM. But I'm not sure I have the ingenuity to go from here in a convincing manner. Krimel said: While we are on the topic of writing technique why to you use _ instead of " sometimes, as in _was_ as opposed to "I" above? Matt: I can't remember if I picked that up from somebody or what, but quotes are just quotes, for quotation or scare, but the little lines I use in place of italics, for emphasis. (Whoever started it probably did it because in a lot of word processing programs, using the lines while typing is a quick key for italics.) Matt _________________________________________________________________ Get in touch in an instant. Get Windows Live Messenger now. http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_getintouch_042008 Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
