Thought you got rid of me...

Brendan McKennedy (suburbantourist@hotmail.com)
Sun, 11 Jan 1998 20:59:20 -0800 (PST) 

Well.
I'm happy to announce that I have returned,
and now on a new and improved online mail service.
I have been sending messages to the list for about
a week now, and none of them made it back to me (in the 
form of my own post OR indignant replies from others on the
list). Perhaps that was intentional--that is, I was 
blacklisted--but in that case, I must have been blacklisted
from the PJ Harvey list as well, since my mails weren't
going through there either.

At any rate, I'd like to take this opportunity, this time
in the hopes that it will be posted, to apologize to you
(Peggy, was it? and anyone else to whom it may apply) for
my "tidy wrapping up of Teddy".  I've
noticed that there has been a bit of discussion on the list
lately of Less-Than-Gentle posts, and I heartily agree with
Tim that one should attack the idea, not the person who puts
that idea forth.  

In case anyone cares to remember, I wrote a post about how 
there wasn't really that much room for interpretation at the 
end of "Teddy".  I don't apologize for that opinion, since it
was exactly that, an opinion; what I apologize for was the 
condescending tone of my delivery of that opinion.  I never 
want to step on anyone's prerogative to interpret Salinger's
work in any way they feel.  The problem is, I'm an Internet
infant, and I'm still learning (through trial and error, 
I'm afraid) that conveying a certain tone via email is a
risky business.  I'm barely treading water without italics
at my disposal...

I too have been in a good number of creative writing classes
where we students attack each other's ideas with claws and
teeth and then, after the discussion, proceed with our rather
sickening friendships without any hard feelings whatsoever.

Here, I think, is the Thing:  I'm very familiar with that 
environment, the Heated Classroom Discussion, and I sort of
fall into its mode whenever amateur literary discussion rears
its head.
Email, however, is not a class room (duh!  ...er, that is...um...);
I forget sometimes that we are reading these posts from our 
own comfort zones--perhaps not quite the usual setting for
 ideological attacks--and a discussion group made up of people 
who have gathered in love of one of the most lovely, beautiful,
and HUMAN writers ever to set pen to paper is perhaps not the
right environment for the claws and teeth.

I'm not attempting to excuse myself; I'm only trying to say
that I'm still learning how to post to this list, and I ask
you to please bear with me for a bit.

Anyways, I'm back.  For better or for worse...and just in time
for the Oscars.  All my chips are on "Mousehunt".  Duh...

the inexorable
Brendan

  

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com