[WikiEN-l] Poetry thread

[Ray Saintonge]

stevertigo wrote:
> Durova, perhaps taking some cue from Gwern, wrote some poetically
> critical and even ugly things above. But while Gwern mostly attacked
> the concept of poetry on wikien-l (oh-so-cleverly I might add), Durova
> appeared to have made it personal, and, for lack of a better word,
> ugly. I don't quite understand how a silly or even stupid poem like
> the one I posted might deserve such a response, but I have given it
> some thought and broken it down a little.
>   

Wow! I'm glad you let us know that it was a personal attack; the rest of 
us might not have known that otherwise.  I thought she was just 
commenting on your poetry.  She did use a limerick format.

> I was motivated to write this by three things 1) personal hate attacks
> and the concepts behind them need to be destroyed, 2) I needed to
> address it in order to move on to other list contributions (I've been
> away so long; I had forgotten we had jerks on this list) and 3)
> correcting Durova's own personal misconceptions, which firstly appears
> to be that she can personally attack someone, without real cause even,
> and she would receive respect, love, and even grace for it. And
> secondly, that she can attempt to destroy someone personally and not
> meet certain undeniable correction.
>   

Is there more to the metaphor in the verse than meets the eye, perhaps 
an unmentioned conflict that started long before this?

> The dominant theories are:
> 1) Durova and Gwern were motivated to make the point that poetry (even
> bad poetry like mine) is altogether unwelcome on wikien. Attempting to
> sound ironic, but sounding rather more unpleasant, they used poetry
> itself to make their point. An insipid point, to be sure; even moreso
> than my pointless, harmless, poem and the posting thereof. 2) Durova
> (less so Gwern) appeared to have and express some animosity toward me
> personally. I don't know quite why; I can't remember even having said
> a word to her personally, on any matter at all.
>
> 3) It also occurs to me that certain people might mismanage certain
> concepts: Someone without sufficient self-conceptual distance between
> their head and their glutes might so misinterpret a harmless everyday
> concept like "poo" and feel entirely soiled by it. The solution is not
> to get personally uglier and uglier; lashing out at the very concept
> as it were; but to simply use personal force of mind to create some
> distance between the two bodily concepts in question.
>
> All is now forgiven. We disembodied online beings can now go and do
> other and maybe better things. With all apologies.. for the poetry.

Anyone who attempts poetry or other literary tricks in this forum does 
so at his own risk.  We have some very serious people here who relish 
the opportunity to add more weight to levity. I considered responding 
but the versification did not come to me straight away to express my 
vision of the poor ants scattering in all directions to avoid being 
turd-bombed by a one-footer.

Ec