I thought that thread at Tim's place was pretty good, especially as he didn't intervene. Many people saw his point. I've managed more structured conversations at our place, but only because the three (now four) of us have decided to wade in and continue to explain ourselves.
When I wrote my first novel, my decision not to intervene led to the most egregious misinterpretations of my position, which meant I abandoned the attempt to make corrections over time. I now accept that people will not understand me, I will not understand them, and that there is no hope for us. Because of this, I am opposed to any political or government attempts to 'remedy the breach': the losses should simply be allowed to lie where they fall.
This may not be fair, but it will at least be equitable. The two are not one and the same.
SL, the thread at Tim's place got better as it went along, I agree. That post of mine was a response to the first ten or twelve comments, which (to me) seemed stacked by people who seemed to think he was saying we should all get rid of all our books, ie who hadn't read the post carefully or thought much about it before jumping in.
It's true that one of the things about blogging that doesn't thrill me is the carelessness of some of the commenters. One of the reasons my old blog was violently pink and full of cats was that I'd studied the Ozblogosphere carefully before jumping into it and those signals were intended to work as a sort of insect repellent, which they were amazingly effective in doing.
I remember the egregious misrepresentations. Many of them had their genesis in exactly the same impulse that drives so many blog commenters (not actual bloggers so much), and that I think was behind many of the comments at Tim's: a desire to signal one's own righteous views and membership of a particular (and implicitly superior) cultural tribe. And that desire gets fulfilled at the expense of an understanding of what's actually being said.
Still Life With Cat is an all-purpose blog containing reflections on whatever is going on in the realms of literature, politics, media, music, dinner, gardening etc. Its original incarnation is Pavlov's Cat (2005-2008).
Read, Think, Write is about all things books and writing, and incorporates Australian Literature Diary (2005-2010) and Ask the Brontë Sisters (May-July 2007).
Blogs are by Kerryn Goldsworthy, a writer, critic and editor who lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia.
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Lovely lovely post. I'm with anon who loves to read your stuff.
Thank you! (Both for the eagle eyes and for the approval.) I picked up another typo while I was over there, too. Sorry, 'tyop'.
I thought that thread at Tim's place was pretty good, especially as he didn't intervene. Many people saw his point. I've managed more structured conversations at our place, but only because the three (now four) of us have decided to wade in and continue to explain ourselves.
When I wrote my first novel, my decision not to intervene led to the most egregious misinterpretations of my position, which meant I abandoned the attempt to make corrections over time. I now accept that people will not understand me, I will not understand them, and that there is no hope for us. Because of this, I am opposed to any political or government attempts to 'remedy the breach': the losses should simply be allowed to lie where they fall.
This may not be fair, but it will at least be equitable. The two are not one and the same.
SL, the thread at Tim's place got better as it went along, I agree. That post of mine was a response to the first ten or twelve comments, which (to me) seemed stacked by people who seemed to think he was saying we should all get rid of all our books, ie who hadn't read the post carefully or thought much about it before jumping in.
It's true that one of the things about blogging that doesn't thrill me is the carelessness of some of the commenters. One of the reasons my old blog was violently pink and full of cats was that I'd studied the Ozblogosphere carefully before jumping into it and those signals were intended to work as a sort of insect repellent, which they were amazingly effective in doing.
I remember the egregious misrepresentations. Many of them had their genesis in exactly the same impulse that drives so many blog commenters (not actual bloggers so much), and that I think was behind many of the comments at Tim's: a desire to signal one's own righteous views and membership of a particular (and implicitly superior) cultural tribe. And that desire gets fulfilled at the expense of an understanding of what's actually being said.
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