MD/GR

[Paul Mackin]

Schwitterz sez:
. Typing things on a screen has a whole different
nonfeeling [sic] to it than personal encounter. I am very glad I did not post my
original response. It was insensitive bullshit.

I don't know what kind of "insensitive bullshit" Schwitterz had in mind to
post but there is a very good reason why a post to the p-list doesn't have
the same feeling as a personal encounter. It's NOT a personal encounter.

What exactly is it then? Well, that's still being thought out. The Internet List is a
NEW and not-yet-completely-understood medium. My tentative view is that,
in general, posts to the list do not fall into either of the two standard
categories of speech or writing but definitely are closer to writing than speech.

So I suggest that SENSITIVITYWISE, as a working rule, we apply a slightly but only
slightly more subdued standard of conduct than the one  we would expect from our
favorite WRITER otherwise known as Thomas Pynchon.

Pynchon can be sensitive when he wants to be but can depart radically from it when it
suits him. 

This post isn't meant to answer Dana's objections. I don't know a good answer.

								P.