Pot Calls Kettle Black

[Paul Mackin]

On Tue, 15 Aug 2000, Dave Monroe wrote:

> ... but has anybody yet detected the irony of Pynchon fans complaining about,
> say, prolixity, self-reflexivity, opacity?  Not that I'm anywhere near as
> interesting, much less entertaining.  Me, I have difficulty reading all those
> cut'n'paste replies ...


You mean I guess the practice of replying to a few lines of a post at a
time seriatim up to and including the signature line. If so I agree but
like to think the p-list has progressed a little in this department over
the years.  It certainly is better IMHO when repliers  wait to try to
understand the total thrust of what someone's expressing. Then
agree or disagree something particularly exemplary or outragious is
being perpetrated but generally an "on the other hand" response is more
like real social intercourse. To disagree with single sentences is
silly but not one does that much anymore I think. But my point is, the
nit-picking approach is too much like in a classroom seeing who can raise
his hand first when the instructor says something the least bit
unexpected.

One way to avoid the cut and paste look is to locate one's own views at
the very top of the post and include only minimal quotes from the posts
one is reacting to.

Actually none of this is important. The charm of the p-list is the
heterogeneity of the various styles and thought processes. What else is
there. In otherwords I have no complaints about anything.

		P.