[lit-ideas] The Cult of Personalities
- From: Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2006 16:30:24 -0500
DR: It's because the times, they are a'changing, and we don't know what's
going to happen. How do I know that we don't know? I read the New
Yorker over lunch. January 9th issue--you probably got it five weeks
back. I read an article about global warming which begins with early
British butterfly collecting, moves to the University of York--oh, I
thought, Judy might be interested--and then scoots across to the
University of Oregon--oh, I thought, Robert might be...--and then has
a wonderful bit about a Quaker telling someone called Savage about
the green mountain's golden toad--oh, I thought, Eric will like this-- and
then the piece wanders into
Scotland--oh, I thought, I would like
The best part about David's post is that it displays I think what many of
us feel who come regularly to this little club. I really do think "oh, I
bet 'insert listserv member's name here' will be interested in this. This
is the number one reason I [try to] contribute to the conversation. We can
sort of, in the best way we can, get to know each other, however remote we
are, however much we choose to reveal to the group, we can make virtual
friends and _consider_ them in our everyday lives. I guess that's as real
as it can get for this medium/method.
A couple of weeks ago my Dad said that one of the most entertaining things
about the Internet over the past decade for him is listening to me regale
him with tales from Phil-Lit and subsequent related groups. He doesn't even
subscribe and he knows all your names -- yes, I mean YOU!
Fortunately, or unfortunately, with a varying degree of selective anonymity
comes a sort of freeing up from our 'public selves'. Perhaps someone can
assume a persona which makes him/her more comfortable with sharing as much
of their life so as not to completely reveal to us the 'real' person, but
enough so that they are some semblance of a possible real person. It's nice
to know sometimes that we aren't JUST characters. There are sometimes real
people on the other end of real conversations. Some of us have even met
each other. For that... I thank you all.
non-whinging, waving,
PkkkkqS
##########
Paul Stone
pas@xxxxxxxx
Kingsville, ON, Canada
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
