: Re Ed's recent definition of hardboiled. Talking about
serial
: killers, gender, etc., in the context of hardboiled fiction
is
: perfectly acceptable because it's debatable. Isn't that
what
: dialogue is all about?
Dialogue's all about two or more people talking, and if two
or more
people want to talk about hardboiled fiction here, then
that's
perfect. That's why the list was created and that's why we're
all
here.
: If you just want to lay down the law about what should be
debated on
: rara-avis why don't you find a website that fits your
narrow
: definitions and go play there
Eddie's not laying down the law. It was laid down over a year
and a
half ago. He was applying it.
: Why inject the sour note in the perfectly calibrated
cacophony of
: our good-humored musings?
It didn't seem sour to me, and the note was injected because
people
had drifted off into debates about Tom Clancy and whether
James
Michener had research assistants. Why is this bad? Because
it's
inappropriate!
I used to wonder why the list kept having these eruptions
every now
and then, but now I know it's part of the nature of a mailing
list.
All I can do is periodically post a reminder about the nature
of the
list and encourage people to say to themselves before
posting: "Is
this related to hardboiled fiction?" and only send if it is.
The list
will work better if everyone does this. ("Related" being left
up to
the intelligence of the list-members.)
Now, please, no more Clancy, Michener or anything like
that.
Bill
--
William Denton | Toronto, Canada | http://www.vex.net/~buff/ | Caveat lector.
"Let's keep the party polite."
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