Re: abandoning the rules of discourse
Quoting Kai's message you deleted the wrong parts of the message, thus
putting in Bruce's pen what I wrote.
paulwade@greenbush.com wrote:
> [Fabrizio wrote:]
> > > I have noticed some interesting ideas in some messages, but their
> > > language convinced me that they were not worth of my attention.
>
> Bruce, it's a bit arrogant to think that everyone will use the
> 'language' that meets your standards.
I don't have "standards" for any language.
I've always thought that the "understandibility" of a message is
responsibility of the sender, not of the recipient. Thus I try to adapt
my language depending on the people who I wrote, and not trying to
impose my preferences (that fact that I succeed in that or not, it's a
completely different matter).
> Do you presume to be so 'refined' that you can eliminate an
> interesting idea from consideration because it comes from a
> non-conformist?
There's nothing "non-conformist" in insulting people. On the contrary, I
think that insults are an "instance" of conformism.
> Which words meet your approval?
There aren't "bad" or "good" words. There is a "bad" or "good" use of
them. You could even insult someone using a "refined" language (humm,
I'm noticing on the dictionary that maybe I should use the word "style"
instead of "language" ... I'm not sure ...)
An anecdote: Thirty years ago, the last "great" italian poet
(G.Ungaretti) was invited to talk on TV and read some of his poetry. At
those times TV was a monopoly of the government, and the government was
monopolized by the Catholic Party (very conformist), so waiting for the
show to begin, Ungaretti was contacted by a functionary of the TV, who
gave him a booklet containig a list of "bad" words (very bad ones) that
was forbitten to be pronounced in TV (a fine was pending). Later, during
the show, Ungaretti announced that he had just wrote a new poem and want
to read it. Everyone was really excited and asked him to do so; he took
out the booklet and, with his deep voice and his slow pronunciation full
of enphasis, started to read all the words in the list. Beacuse of his
long white beard and his age (he was 80), the performance was really
impressive. Later, when the dismayed interviewer asked him why he did
that, Ungaretti replyed that all words have the same dignity and he
disliked to see that some was discriminated because of the use people
were doing of them, and he was trying to restore them some dignity using
them in a "noble way".
Fabrizio
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> Just because Red Hat do it doesn't mean it's a good idea. [Ian J.]
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