This is fun. Thanks for writing back. I guess I'll further clutter this thread with my responses
Originally Posted by
khutch
Uh, yeah, Christoper Tolkien is a professional author and he does indeed write for money. Sorry you did not like his Father's telling of the old Norse legend. If you liked Wagner's version then I suppose there is some hope for your redemption. The two works are in vastly different modes of expression so comparing the one to the other is pointless other than to say that both are high art and exceedingly well done.
I consider the Sigurd stuff to be something more akin to Tolkein's personal sketches, less than fit for publication.
If you can't see that of the Tolkien work, well, as much as I love Wagner's orchestral passages I really don't care much for the fat lady's singing
Hey, slick, my wife is a Mezzo Soprano.
http://ada-artists.com/about-us/shawn-marie-jeffery/ There's a bit more to opera than fat ladies. It's an aquired taste, and I'm honestly not that into Wagner.
so I only accept on faith that Wagner's operas and operas in general are as good as people say they are, and so I can hardly criticize you overly much if you don't appreciate Old Norse poetic conventions.
Time was that I could read beowulf in old English. Well, at least pronounce it. I have a few degrees in English, so it's not exactly above my head. The opening bits of "Sigurd" were polished enough to be called poetry. The other stuff was still rough-- not ready for publication.
Uh, I wasn't trying to impress you.
oh, come on. I can admit to being a little proud of myself for not using a cell phone if you can admit to using your purple prose to impress people.
I thought I was responding to someone who previously said "I like matches. ..... I like books. I like..." so I came up with a bookish example to illustrate my point, thinking that someone who likes books could identify with it. .... Both of those books are available from that bastion of high toned, self important, utterly elite literary snobs, Border's Books. If you haven't got an IQ of 230 they don't let you in the door. I don't need your SAT score, it is highly unlikely it is high enough....
Ok, well, I knew that stuff off the top of my head. I think life is fuller for not needing information from the internet to think with depth and breadth on a topic. I can get into Borders OK. They just want me for my money, and possibly my good looks, not my weschler numbers.
On second thought, what was your SAT score again???
PM me if you really want to know.
..... amounts to fancy pants intellectual posturing? And this from someone who claims to be a teacher? Why in my day
A phrase like "why in my day" pretty much equals affectation. That's where I'm getting the whole posturing vibe. It's the internet and all... so it's all good.
teachers actually encouraged reading and a love of books,
The last book In the hands of a student was chosen based on what he said he liked to read while in detention. As in Penitentary. I have to do a whole lot more than wear lace and say "dearie."
Sorry if you find that offensive or uppity, Mr. teacher.
Thanks for the apology.
I'm not worked up, just trying to have an intelligent conversation with someone who only responds with chest banging and head butting. I'm actually getting quite bored with this.
I'm sorry my Hamlet quotes were too simian for you.
Did Google frighten your mother when she was carrying you? Your father's library could burn down tomorrow.
To my way of thinking, that's why they call it Kindle.
Much of the internet content exists on multiple servers and is at least somewhat immune to attacks and failures. ... Do you read science fiction out of fear of the future? Or can you only see the value of a thing when it is fully fledged and served up to you on a golden platter?
No, I can only understand things that are written to me with derision and sarcasm. Thanks for helping me out.
Some of us are pioneers, we can see the potential of a New Thing even if it is more potential that reality right now.
Corporate control of all information. Great. There are some books about that, I think.
......
I also see a lot of people using cell phones and none of them look afraid, none of them look like zombies, none of them look like they are slaves of an evil empire, none of them look anything like what you try to portray them as. They are just people using a tool, they look no different from the people reading books or listening to Wagner.
You don't know what it's like in a "ghetto" (their words, not mine) high school. Zombie land. The wave of your future.
On my way home tonight I will carry my phone in my briefcase turned off as I pedal since I can't really answer it while riding. When I have folded/bagged my bike I will turn it on in case my wife needs to discuss our evening plans, in case there is an emergency (does that offend you), in case the woman sitting next to me wants to see some information about my Dahon (happened just last week),.... Mostly though I will sit there quietly reading The Literature of Ancient Sumer, just the book that happened to percolate to the top of the stack this month, and I won't turn to the phone at all unless a question in the text happens to pop up. If that happens a Google (queue scary music) search might help, an email to one of the authors might help, or even a quick call to a researcher at the Oriental Institute (must remember to join first though) could give me an answer. I am sorry if this seems too high falutin' for you. I'm not trying to impress anyone but I will admit to being addicted to human knowledge. I would think you would be too since it was your profession that inspired this love of learning in me. That does not mean that you yourself should use a phone but it does make it so very odd that you rail against them so loudly and inexpertly.
Ken
I'd rather talk to the girl eye to eye than whip out my lame phone. Much better that way. Do you mean the Oriental Institute in Flushing? I went to a lecture and art show there once. I doubt that the art would have lost a little in translation on the screen of a smart phone. Better to live life in person than over a 2" screen.
When you resign yourself to getting information through a paid portal, you're giving up choice and freedom in what you're shown. Libraries remain a bulwark against this.
I'm convinced that, like the camping trips mentioned above, my experience on the bike is somehow more real for me I think without the umbilical cord of a cell phone.
And it's "cue" not "queue." Maybe an analogy is hiding there, or evidence of what I'm getting at. Spell check = cell phone.