Re: My two cents, Robyn Hitchcock

["James J. Lippard" <Lippard@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA>]

> Really-From: David M. Hardy <HAADAV@MITVMA>

> I just can't take seriously anyone's opinion if they can't state it
> without swearing.  It shows that there is a certain lack of mental ability
> to communicate, when people have to refer to bodily or sexual functions in
> a vulgar way, when talking about something unrelated to them.

That's bullshit, and this sentence is an illustration of why.  I could have
said "That's nonsense", but it would not have come across as strong and would
not have adequately expressed what I wanted.  Strong opinions require either
strong language or being unnecessarily verbose.

As far as I can tell, the only reason people get "offended" by "obscenity" is
that it embarrasses them.  There are polite euphemisms used for most of the
so-called "dirty words" which such people use all the time ("shucks" or
"shoot" for "shit", "darn" or "dang" for "damn", "geez" for "Jesus H.
Tapdancing Christ", etc.) and for some reason masking a letter or two in the
printed representation seems to make it acceptable as well.  So it's obvious
that it's not the referent that's offensive (it's pretty obvious what "f--k"
refers to), but rather the actual characters and sound.  This seems to imply
that "being offended" is purely social conditioning, we are taught that these
certain sounds and images are "dirty" and have no place in polite
conversation.

It's true, however, that these words are overused.  But to say that they should
never be used is to remove some useful vocabulary from the language.

BTW, David, in your message about Les Miserables, I was unable to tell that
you considered it to be the best album of 1986 until you said so.  Saying that
it's "highly recommended" and "very well worth it" and that you were "mostly
impressed" doesn't make it sound all that great.  I think you could have
expressed your opinion more strongly by using a good metaphor and still
avoided vulgarity, but it would have been much easier just to say "it's
fucking amazing".

   Just to throw some music into this message, I just bought Robyn Hitchcock's
"I Often Dream of Trains" the other day, and I'm not sure why it's everyone's
favorite RH album.  I like "Fegmania!" and "Black Snake Diamond Role" better.
IODoT seems to be a more personal album, as people have said, but I like his
more upbeat stuff better.  (There are no drums on IODoT, are there?  I don't
remember hearing any.)
How does "Groovy Decay" compare to these?

   Jim (Lippard at MULTICS.MIT.EDU)