source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 07:02:53 -0800 Subject: Re: Apologias and Rumours of the Noise to Come From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@CompuServe.COM> > > that it's very easy to get Brian McLaren all wrong. > And wouldn't that be Brian's problem just a *teensy* bit? :-). Oh yes, on my opinion. I certainly don't blame you or anybody else for having negative reactions to Brian's over-colorful rhetoric. Again on my opinion, Brian just doesn't understand that the tone with which people read E-mail. The traditional way to read E-mail is to take it semipersonally. I'm not suggesting that that's good or bad, nor that anybody here is particularly extreme in that regard, but just that that's the way people work. It's a kind of like how people read bill-collectors' late-payment notices (well, a little anyway): The desired reaction to such a first notice of course is "oh sorry, I must have missed that somehow; here's your check". To get that reaction, the notice must be phrased something like "we've noticed that there appears to be some sort of delay in payment". If bill collectors were to phrase it something like, "what's the deal; did you fire your accountant or just not pass the first grade?!", their reaction will be something more like, "well #$&* you". Now I seriously doubt if Brian would ever write in such an insensitive tone to an overdue account. I'm just saying that the problem with his postings is not that he's a vindictive, spiteful SOB, but just that he doesn't realize that he needs to use a rhetorical model of his audience a little bit more like an overdue account than a textbook. In the social context of a textbook, his colorful phraseology would be more likely viewed as funny, which I'm pretty sure is his intention. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 18 Nov 1996 16:02 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA16266; Mon, 18 Nov 1996 16:04:00 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA16364 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id HAA00497; Mon, 18 Nov 1996 07:03:57 -0800 Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 07:03:57 -0800 Message-Id: <961118150020_71670.2576_HHB50-6@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu