All basically agreed with (see below), but this only applies to those whose command of English (or indeed any language being used as the basis for this comment) is suitable. My French is passable, but I fear I would easily miss the nuances of sarcasm and other forms of wit if I partook of a French email list. Like Albano [in this instance] I would be puzzled and disillusioned.
Don't forget this is an international list! Maybe something like Richard Seaman's US/UK translations page would go down well here. A Guide to Understanding Humo(u)r Through the English Written Word. What a can of worms there, Fawlty!!! Cot >> First, people (in the US) are terribly over sensitive compared to even >> the fairly recent past. They seem to be going about with a chip on >> their shoulder, looking out for anything that might possibly, in the >> wildest manner, be construed as a slight, against anyone, so they can >> take immediate and radical offense to it. > >this seems to be the case over here (UK) too. It's a very strange idea >that you can't do or say something because somebody might find it >offensive. As you say, it's usually people who are out looking to be >offended, and they're not usually placated by the response "tough >shit, facts are facts". Winston Churchill had the right idea: > >Lady Astor: "Mr. Churchill you're drunk!" >Churchill: "And you, Lady Astor, are ugly. As for my condition, it will >pass by the morning. You, however, will still be ugly." > >On another list there's even been an email where some guy is being >offended on behalf of other people! In the RPS magazine there was a >portfolio of photos by and an interview with Bob Carlos Clarke, in >which Clarke says that women under 30 are not sexually interesting. The >correspondent - a man - seems to think that's insulting and offensive to >young women, and has taken it upon himself to be offended on their >behalf! Har! (as the saying goes round here) Who said there were no >more gentlemen? > >> Second, education and communication skills are in the dumper (in the >> US). Compare the letters US Civil War soldiers wrote home to what >> passes for written communications these days. Many of those soldiers >> had no schooling beyond three or four years in a one-room schoolhouse. >> Their command of the language and its usage, however, is leagues ahead >> of all but the best writing you see today. > >Not that I like rap music or anything, but there's some fantastically >creative use of language going on in many parts of that general area >of culture. Some of the type of writing you're talking about was like >the use of copper-plate script - just drilled in without there >necessarily being any understanding. Bear in mind also that you're >seeing the good stuff that historians and editors have pre-selected >for quality. When 130 years have blown away the chaff we'll also look >like good writers. > >Yo! (is that what young people are saying these days, or am I talking >pants?) > >Bob (The Man Who Is No Longer Young). ____________________________________ Cor, swipe me. He paints with light! http://www.macads.co.uk/snaps/ ____________________________________ Free UK Macintosh classified ads at http://www.macads.co.uk/ ____________________________________
