Tempers flaring like books on the barbie


Subject: Tempers flaring like books on the barbie
From: Jon Tveite (jontv@ksu.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 16 1997 - 10:06:05 GMT


Robert Brian Garcia <robgarcia@overnet.com.ar> wrote:

> First of all, a few words to Mr. Malcs, since you so vapidly reduced my
> book burning narration to a neo-nazi demonstration. I don't understand
> your logic: book+burn=nazi. Who's being more extreme? I who simply
> burnt a book I disliked, or you accusing me of being a nazi for burning
> a book?

Has anyone pointed out, yet, that there's a big difference between burning
books and burning *a* book? The former is a supremely public act bent on
restricting other people's access to ideas you disapprove of. The latter
was a personal act performed for personal reasons.

Of course, publishing a description of this private act on the Internet
makes it rather public, and might have an effect similar to that of a
ceremonial book burning. Clearly, Mr. Garcia, you intended to impress
upon us the great extent of your opposition to this particular book by
sharing your account. And, whether you intended to or not, you have
influenced my thinking about the book, which I've never read. Maybe I
never will. Maybe I never would have, anyway. Maybe I will, now, just to
see what all the fuss is about.

Does this make you a Nazi? Of course not. That is an extremely
inflammatory term that gets thrown around entirely too often. I think
it's so inflammatory, in fact, that it can *never* serve the cause of
intelligent debate, unless specifically applied to actual, historical
members of the Nazi Party. It shouldn't have been used in this instance,
in my opinion. The point of all this is that the Internet has the
potential to obliterate the line between private and public, if we let it.
Think, feel, and do what you will, but please realize that sending these
things out into cyberspace raises your level of responsibility for them.

And then helena said:

> Sorry to continually babble about my English exams, but I just couldn't
> believe that you had my exam question in your head THE WHOLE TIME!!

What you don't know, helena, is that I wrote your English exam. In fact,
I write all the English exams, whether your teachers realize it, or not.
And let me tell you, it's a helluvalotta work! But deeply rewarding, at
the same time.

BTW, I must say that I really like the new digest format, with the subject
and author indexed at the top. Somebody did a very clever thing, setting
it up that way. Kudos to you!

Jon (Tveite) <jontv@ksu.edu>
____________________________________________________
"Any peasant with a dumb cow can make whipped cream,
 but it takes a chemical factory to make Cool Whip."

                           -- William Irwin Thompson



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