Comments on: Giving offense, again

By: Carl

Carl — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:23:33 +0000

Totally. I totally think that. But I’m not sure the North won the culture wars; having lost on the battlefield, the South retrenched to a subtle campaign of cultural subversion… I mean, look what happened to the Republicans…

By: john doyle

john doyle — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:13:02 +0000

Admit it, Carl: not only do you feel more comfortable in the plain-spoken, thick-skinned Yankee culture — you think it’s BETTER than mannered Southern gentility. And you regard yourself as a carpetbagger emissary of Northern bluntness, practicing it in your neighborhood and especially in your classroom. When you’re voted teacher of the year your crass vulgarity is reinforced, yet you fail to acknowledge that the North won the culture wars a hundred years ago and that your students are happy to learn Yankee ways because that’s where the money is…

I’m from Chicago and my wife is from rural Virginia, so the cultural divide lives inside our home. I’m glad at least you guys think I’m nice.

By: Carl

Carl — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:42:48 +0000

Oh cool, that’s going to the top of my must-see list. Thanks.

By: the voice of parodic reason

the voice of parodic reason — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:44:01 +0000

Hey, no offense, Dejan. I mean I respect your art, really creative, really makes me think, etc.

I haven’t been floored by this sneerism at all, Eloise. Your problem is you just CAN’T BE BAD even when you want to.

The problem with the Parody Center is that my correspondent so frequently lapses into live tranny journalism instead of doing her work, for she specializes in musical/vaudeville – an essential ingredient of any good parody. Right now she’s scribbling these long-winded letters about nothing instead of exploiting the full possibilities of the new blawging skirmishes related to Trolling and the Michael Jackson-Becoming.

Carl regarding what you see about the South, I just saw a great movie (DRAG ME TO HELL by Sam Raimi) which explores the issue with great comedic insight but is none the less genuinely SCARY for precisely that comic insight.

By: Carl

Carl — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:22:16 +0000

Thanks Kevin! I stop doing anything at all on a regular schedule when I’m on summer break; in fact, I sort of go feral. And it is indeed a terrible character flaw.

By: kvond

kvond — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:23:01 +0000

Carl,

Sorry I’ve been away for a few days and only now have made my rounds — If I can offer an organic offense, though some terrible character flaw of your own you stopped blogging for far too long, Carl –. What a wonderful, delicately put post. Perhaps one of the least energy-draining posts I have read in a long while.

By: Carl

Carl — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:58:26 +0000

Ramble on, John. This is more of a corner bar-type blog. ;-)

Thanks very much for the Be Black Baby links. They look awesome and should come in handy.

By: john doyle

john doyle — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:59:28 +0000

Well anyhow, people are emotionally invested in what they do and say, otherwise they probably couldn’t mount the energy to be bothered. Direct blogging encounters between combatants can usually be patched up, or else they eventually blow over. I delete personal attacks from comments on my blog, whether directed at another commenter, some other blogger who’s not part of the discussion, or (more recently) myself. Hard feelings don’t typically go away completely, and some people’s personal styles just seem to rub each other the wrong way. And it’s also clear, as Mikhail and Dejan have pointed out, that anger at some other asshole can fuel creativity.

I tend to take a dim view of talking behind another blogger’s back; e.g., alluding to someone else’s post/comment and then discussing it on your own blog in negative terms. This seems rather passive-aggressive to me: why not have it out “face to face”? I don’t think all these backhanded discussions are ill-motivated — mine on trolls, for example, were of course motivated by only the best of intentions (winky smiley). And someone else’s post can trigger a reader’s longer thought that does distract and deviate substantively from the original context, so a separate post is merited. And then there are the bloggers who’ve disabled comments altogether, all but forcing the rest of us to talk behind their backs. But I suspect you know what I mean.

Gosh, I’m just rambling on over here, Carl — you’d think I don’t have a project of my own or something…

By: john doyle

john doyle — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:30:46 +0000

I did LOL about the gardenia response, I have to admit.

By: john doyle

john doyle — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:28:44 +0000

Hey, no offense, Dejan. I mean I respect your art, really creative, really makes me think, etc.