Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 13:38:40 -0600
From: Jerry Shepperd <shepperd-AT-austin.cc.tx.us>
Subject: Re: Rules of functioning


At 06:44 PM 11/12/1999 +0000, you wrote:
>>This is a great note, Jerry. Especially the suggestion about an orange drink
>>Ingo
>>
>>At 12:31 PM 11/11/99 -0600, you wrote:
>>>
>>>The discussion on lurking and participating reminds me of the old time
>>>practice, before telly and e-lists, that when people got together they
>>>shared stories.  This is the essence of the Canterbury Tales.  The basic
>>>requirement for sharing the campfire, and sometimes the food and drink,
>>>would be to tell a story.  However, people would not necessarily be banned
>>>from the circle for not sharing in the story telling.   Nor, was it always
>>>a case of "Can you top this," but, rather, of sociability and
entertainment.
>>>
>>>I sometimes view discussion groups on the e-lists as something similar, but
>>>with the elements of a good classroom discussion, or discussions over a big
>>>orange drink in a pub, mixed in.  Some are active listeners and they
>>>contribute by their presence.  A good story demands good listeners.  Good
>>>e-lists require good lurkers.
>>>
>>>Jerry Shepperd
>
>But this fails to recognise the important differences: round a fire, in a
>bar, the "lurkers" - the audience - can contribute by changing expressions
>(attentive, amused shocked, etc.)  at relevant points; silence (like the
>significance of the *lack* of a barking dog in a Sherlock Holmes story),
>laughter, applause, etc. From lurkers in an email group contributors get -
>nothing - till the former become former lurkers.
>
>  Oh and no orange stuff for me,  mine's a pint of Old Lurcher.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Ted Welch Lecturer and web master
>School of Communication, Design and Media, University of Westminster,
>London, UK
>http://www.wmin.ac.uk/media  web designer of http://www.frontlinetv.com
>http://www.wmin.ac.uk/media/NIPP (Network of Philosophy in Practice)
>
>"Truth Matters" Noam Chomsky


Ted, I agree with you, and think that your distinctions are important ways
of differentiating between some members of lists.  However, I would like to
propose another distinction, and that is between those who must have an
audience in order to "go on" versus those who have less of a need for that
audience.   This distinction may be one of the differences between those
who find acting on stage as being a pleasant and challenging activity
versus those who don't.  (Another distinction may be the amount of talent).
 Actors on the stage play to, and, thus, get their cues from the audience.
Movie actors play to the camera.  Some list members may be writing for the
computer, and not for the readers of the messages, and posssibly there are
some who are reading for the same reasons.  Each are reproducing their own
vesion of need.   There are some people on lists who are like those who
enjoy their own jokes and pranks even if no one else does, who enjoy seeing
their words on the screen, even if no one else enjoys them or even reads
them.  The person who laughs at her or his own jokes may not make it as a
stand-up comedian, but that doesn't stop them from laughing.  

Bourdieu writes, "Only the concept of _Pedagogic Work_ can break the circle
in which one is trapped when one forgets that a 'cultural need' is a
cultivated need, i.e., when one severs it from the social conditions of its
production." (Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, p. 38).  The
need for a response is a cultural need, a need that has been cultivated and
learned and is relative and variable.  The arbitrariness of the situation
occurs when someone says that their own need for a response should be the
basis for a rule that must be imposed upon others.

And, what color is Old Lurcher, if not a mellow shade of orange?  Even
auburn is a shade of dark orange, is it not? <:)>  I'm not familiar with
it, but if you like it, I take that as a recommendation.

Jerry Shepperd
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