Date: Wed, 12 Jul 95 15:17:45 EDT From: ma-AT-dsd.camb.inmet.com (Malgosia Askanas) Subject: Re: mouthwash, horrific > Malgosia, your point about conversation intrigues. Several > lists I visit perk up only with easy-going conversation, and > prepared postings elicit few responses. Laments about lack of > substance are usually unanswered or flamed or ridiculed. John, I assume that by "prepared" you mean: prepared in some sense independently of the use to which the posting is put on the given list, yes? So there is a self-sufficiency, a certain completeness about the post, a call for a certain kind of reading and appreciation which is not usually demanded by less-prepared ones. So the post already constitutes a foreign body: it demands that conversation should arrange itself around it, while it declares itself to be of a sturdier texture -- or it demands a response in kind, an equally prepared post to match it. But in any case, it makes no amends to the ongoing thought-process; to the contrary, it tries to obstruct it and turn all the attention to itself. I actually have no objections to such posts, it's just my curent mood that has trouble dealing with them. I am not necessarily in agreement with my mood. But I do think that the treatment such posts call for is significantly different than in the case of "dialogic" (not necessarily easy-going) stuff, and may simply be at odds with the state of mind in which people typically sort through their mailboxes. -malgosia ------------------
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005