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From: chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: wasting time
Message-ID: <2966@sun.uucp>
Date: Sat, 9-Nov-85 00:15:24 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.2966
Posted: Sat Nov  9 00:15:24 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Nov-85 03:21:19 EST
References: <917@cvl.UUCP> <352@whuts.UUCP> <11@ttidcc.UUCP>
Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Distribution: net
Organization: Sun Micro -- NFS Consulting Group
Lines: 56

In article <11@ttidcc.UUCP> hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) writes:
>In article <352@whuts.UUCP> amc@whuts.UUCP (Andy Cohill) writes:
>>electronic communication is no substitute for the real thing.
>
>Electronic communication isn't real?  You mean  there  aren't  real  people
>reading this stuff?  It's just an AI experiment?  Perhaps you don't believe
>in telephones, either? (-:

Well, I definitely agree with Jerry's sentiments, but it really needs to go
a step farther. Just because you can't write things that live doesn't mean
others can't. I've carried on a number of 'relationships' or continuing
correspondences across this net that would blow away your average party
banter, or even your better than average party banter, for that matter. 

We're not doing anything on this net that hasn't been done for centuries.
Just ask Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the Portuguese. (If, by any chance,
you don't recognize the reference, I can understand why you don't see
writing letters as being the 'real thing'). Please remember that before
there were telephones the only way two people could communicate at a
distance WAS by letter, and many were splendid at it. Just because we have
a society of functional illiterates that couldn't turn over a flowing
phrase with a sledge hammer doesn't mean it can't be done. If YOU can't do
it, it is because you aren't good enough with your chosen language -- don't
blame the medium, blame the messenger (try writing your love letters in C?
naaaahhhhhhhh)

>>Get out there and laugh a little, love a little, hang your soul out
>>where people can stomp on it; take a little risk; do something just
>>because you are afraid to do it; do something you have never done
>>before; hitch your pants up, or straighten your brassiere, and go
>>talk to that guy or girl about whom you've been having dreams. And oh
>>yes, don't forget to listen to the song without a sound...

Hmm... that's funny, I thought that I'd done that... So much for brash
generalizations. The person that I'm posslqing with (and about to celebrate
6 months of posslqing with, for that matter) and I met over this barren,
dry and unreal net, and came out of it with a much stronger relationship
because it gave us the ability to break through a lot of barriers and learn
about each other.

(editorial comment)
    I wish people would learn to stop generalizing their own weaknesses
    onto the entire society of people they deal with. The reality is,
    everyone has different weaknesses. Just because you aren't comfortable
    enough with written words doesn't mean everyone is. The fact is that
    most people aren't comfortable (or well trained) in the written word
    anymore, a sad fact of life in the current educational environment.
    Many, sad to say, aren't much better at using their mouths, either,
    but the spoken word is more tolerant to abuse...

chuq
-- 
:From the Crystal Caves of Avalon:   Chuq Von Rospach 
sun!chuq@decwrl.DEC.COM                 {hplabs,ihnp4,nsc,pyramid}!sun!chuq

Our time is past -- it is a time for men, not of magic.