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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: Language, language (was: Re: Scoring implementation)
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Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 18:12:02 GMT
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Charles Powell (cpowell@course4.harvard.edu) wrote:
> Well, certainly some good works have been written that use such language. 
> But all too often, resorting to the use of foul language is a mark of
> an inability to express oneself descriptively. 

I don't mean to indict you personally, but all too often, this complaint 
is used by people who make no effort at all to judge whether the "foul 
language" is being used with care or without.

You hear the same thing about Usenet emoticons. "Nobody should use 
smileys -- they're a sign that the writer can't express himself 
literately."

(This is usually followed by "Charles Dickens (or whoever) was able to 
write without using smileys." We are usually spared the equivalent 
nonsense about vulgarity, however, because it's too easy to point to 
people like Shakespeare and Chaucer, and other famous literary prudes. 
Heh.)

In both cases, I ignore the complaint. It's meaningless to me. Either it 
doesn't apply to me, or you're just going out of your way to insult me 
indirectly.

If I thought I was unable to express myself descriptively, I wouldn't drop
swearing (and smileys); I'd stop writing games entirely. Since I don't and
I won't, you (the IF populace in general) will have to deal with it. 

--Z


-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
