The Death of Emotion

[katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris n Vickie)]

Vickie here.

Meredith said:

> Reading today's Digest was like reading the transcript of a table
> conversation in a junior-high cafeteria.  Someone ranking on Jorn,
> Jorn ranking back, everybody ranking on Robyn, Vickie ranking and
> ranking...

First of all, why should Robyn get away with posting such a statement
as she did? It was stated as if she had some kind of inside information,
which she doesn't. It was stated as if it were true, which it isn't.
I assume it was either a rumor, or a personal opinion. She didn't give
any details as to which it was. Bad enough that she said it, but gaffa
going down made it even worse, with people worrying for days before 
hearing the truth of the matter (unless they read Ecto, rec.music.misc
or rec.music.cd) when gaffa resumed.

You want I should congratulate her?

Secondly, Jessica said this in an unrelated post:

> And don't plenty of people encourage people *not* to show themselves,
> but to be conservative, careful, tentative, afraid of others, and of
> showing themselves to others? 

Does this sound like rec.music.gaffa? It does to me, not that I'm saying
Jessica meant it to apply here. The last time *I* posted something from
the heart I got scalded by Larry Spence. The last few times I posted
something from the heart I got scalded from other people. Why? If I make
a factual error, by all means, flame away. But if it concerns *my* emotions,
what business is it of *anyone* to tell me I'm wrong? If no one wants to
hear my emotions speaking, they can skip over what I say. If people feel
that rec.music.gaffa is not the place to write from an emotional point-
of-view, then what's wrong with e-mail? Gaffa is supposed to be a place
where all points of views can be heard and lots of different subjects
covered. Aren't emotional writings part of that? I guess not. Cynthia,
Richard Caldwell, Jon Drukman, Larry Spence and others don't think so.
Why do these people feel the *need* to discourage emotion? Why can't I
complain about their lack of sensitivity? Without emotions, without
people who can express their emotions, the world would be an uninteresting,
dry and very mechanical place to live. Whenever someone dumps on someone
else for expressing an emotional opinion, that automatically discourages
emotional expression. And we're all Kate Bush fans here?

No, I'll most likely never write another emotion-laden article for this
newsgroup, so the emotion-stompers won't have anything to tear apart. 
I gave them plenty of fodder in the past. I'll keep my feelings to myself.
God knows, Jorn will probably never write anything like that again either.
Too bad, because there are other people like me who enjoyed that article.
Minor disagreements can be dealt with via e-mail, there was no reason
for Cynthia to tear into him like she did. I agree with Ken Brownfield,
in that her reaction showed a lot about her own character. Richard Caldwell
wrote a fascinating and thought-provoking article about his own reactions
to TSW. He ruined it by coming off sounding very cynical and bitchy and he
even made it a point to refer to Jorn's article. No reason for it, he'd
made his point. He just wanted to show us all what his steel-hardened
heart looked like, I guess. It was fascinating too.

So Meredith, why don't *you* look a little closer at what's going on here,
before you call us a bunch of junior high school kids. This goes far
deeper than "ranking" (never heard that expression before) or flaming.
This concerns the death of emotional writings in rec.music.gaffa, thanks
to those who prefer to scorn rather than skip. Would Kate be proud?

All of the above is my own humble emotional opinions speaking. That's the
last you'll see of them here.*

Vickie
katefans@chinet.chi.il.us

"I look for what moves me emotionally"  Kate Bush

*well, maybe. Let's see if I can keep my mouth shut when KBVII comes out :-)
Doubt it.