Text 4624, 169 rader
Skriven 2006-07-23 23:50:00 av Robert E Starr JR (5121.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: ATTN JMS: Please Don'
=================================
* * * This message was from Jaime M. de Castellvi to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m
* * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
            -----------------------------------------------             

@MSGID: <bc77c2p1so8m82eaf8ec9449ap4jh4vetl@4ax.com>
@REPLY: <200607190842.k6J8gQAR005154@agora.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu>
On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 17:06:54 +0000 (UTC), denebeim@deepthot.org (Jay
Denebeim) wrote:

>In article <qn1vb21md93483vnb8auee51otqr58hm1j@4ax.com>,
>Richard Tibbetts  <richard@primepeace.ltd.uk> wrote:
>>In message <20060720085007.93118.qmail@web30203.mail.mud.yahoo.com>,
>>Troy Heagy <electrictroy@yahoo.com> wrote on Thu, 20 Jul 2006 01:50:07
>>-0700 (PDT):
>>
>>> Please don't allow this father-fing son of a
>>> bitch ahole (Ford Thaxton?) to win.  
>>
>>Can someone nearer hit this guy with a clue-by-four?
>
>I've gotta apologize for that.  That message should absolutely not
>have gotten onto the newsgroup.  New moderator.  And yes, she's been
>smacked.
>
>Troy, who's been a clueless annoyance as long as he's been posting has
>no idea what nettiquette is like.  This morning we bounced a message
>where he was quoting an e-mail from Harper.
>
>Look, people, you know how to be polite, please do so.  I've got a
>very sick parrot which is requiring me to drive all over the state for
>treatment.  Work is blowing up.  And other suff.  So please, play
>nicely for awhile, okay?

Sorry to hear about your parrot.  Hope he gets well soon <waving "Hi"
to Cheryl too>.

I didn't realize that PH had become such a pest, but that shows how
out of touch I've been, dropping by only every blue moon or so.

My last exchange with Paul was somewhere around August 2001.  It was
just after Gharlane's passing.  A lot of people were hurting from the
loss, and some of the usual suspects came in and starting craping on
his grave.  IIRC Paul was tangling with them and with just about
everybody else.  Anyway, things were getting ugly so I tried to inject
a little humor by using a couple of sock puppets to make fun of two or
three jerks stirring things up.  I also pretended to be Paul by
setting up a yahoo addy and then posting for Google, only then
parodying to excess his British style.

That was nearly six years ago and, other than being a little mercurial
and perhaps having something to prove, Paul seemed like an OK bloke
overall.  Mostly he seemed to do a lot of righteous bumbling, which
was kind of funny to watch from afar.  I'm sorry to hear he's turned
to the dark side.  My suggestion with people who troll maliciously (as
opposed to those who troll playfully and in a fun way) is to ignore
them.  This of course never works because they always end up getting
under peoples's hides.  The other suggestion is not to take anything
they say seriously.  Following up misinterpreting what they say in
outrageous and hilarious ways works wonders; history documents
extensively the subversive powers of laughter to confront anger and
righteousness.

The thing is that, without knowing any of this and after all these
years since I used that fake Paul Harper handle, I used it again this
spring to perpetrate my annual April Fools usenet prank.  I decided I
could not post as myself this time since all the regulars are used to
my yearly mischief and nobody believes me anymore.  So, even though I
haven't traded posts with Paul in years, I decided to play a prank on
him as well as everybody else.  I used the false PH handle to post a
fake article in which Adam Baldwin was supposedly coming out of the
closet a la George Takei.  While I did get some reaction to it in the
Firefly, rast and moderated screenwriting group, I was disappointed
that Paul never reacted indignantly to claim he hadn't written the
sodding thing.  Perhaps he never saw it.  Anyway, somebody x-posted
one of his posts to servo today so I asked him.  We'll see whether or
not he replies.  As I said, I'm sorry he's gone all obsessive on
y'all.  Were is the fun in that?

As I said, laughter seems to me to be the best prevention/preemption.
But of course, it is impossible to get eveybody in lockstep about
this, or anything (which is a GOOD thing, ultimately).  And when
somebody's obsession starts interfering with somebody else's
creativity, the creative person has every right (and arguably a
responsibility to himself, his craft, and his audience, for in the end
the act of creation reflects and channels the creative forces of the
universe, whereas obsession is a facing away from life itself and may
become an act of destruction) to get out of that situation.

On a slightly unrelated note, Cronan's name has been mentioned in the
other thread.  I'm not exactly sure that introducing him there was
necessary or productive at this point.  I do know that there are many
people in this group who did not particularly care for him, and some
who still don't, but I do feel (and other folks's mileage may vary)
that a very talented young man who passed away very untimely is
ultimately a reason for sadness.

There is also a significant difference with PH's case.  Age.  A person
who has lived and experienced and matured has less excuses not to know
better.  If Cronan was a pain in the butt in this group, he did so at
a fairly young age, between 16 and 18, before he passed away.
Speaking for myself, I was an utter asshole at that age.  Seems to me
that those of us who with the benefit of age, experience and quite a
few hard knocks have managed to grow a little wiser (or perhaps a
little less foolish) over time, should be a little more understanding
with the follies of youth.  But I guess some folks can't quite make
peace so easily with their own youthfull follies.  Out of enlightened
self-interest then, if not out of introspection; nothing looks more
ridiculous than a suppossedly mature person in her 30s or 40s that's
still enraged about the pranks of a 17 year old well over half a
decade after his tragic death.

Cronan was very young, impetuous, angry in some ways, idealistic in
others (but with the quick, uncompromising, and mercurial idealism of
youth), and with much to prove to himself, I cannot find many teens
who do not fit that bill, particularly when they come from a minority
background such as Cronan's and from a set of particulars
circumstances that make things like high school most traumatic and
unpleasant.

But unlike most who fit that bill, Cronan was incredibly gifted,
intelligent.  He knew how to rile folks up and he delighted as those
only so young can do in doing it.  But he also had an intuitive and
growing gift for critical irony, incisive sarcasm, humor, parody...
and writing.  And he *loved* reading.  As much as a lashing out, much
of his posting was also a showing off of his prowess; again, a very
understandable thing to do at that age, and given his circumstances.
And there was an underlying gentleness budding in his writings; many
people were too easily enraged by the surface of his trolls to be
sensitive to this undercurrent.  Robert Hewitt Wolfe, another
successfull writer/producer/screenwriter (particularly well known to
genre and Trek fans) who had occasion to be trolled and flamed by
Cronan and to playfully sparr with him over in rast, easily sensed
this.  He grew fond of Cronan and was affected by his loss.  And in
his pilot for _Andromeda_ he payed homage to Cronan Thompson naming
one of the characters who die in the opening scene after him (Cronan's
mother was deeply touched by this).

For those of us who had some slight acquaintance with him online,
there was evidence that, as he grew older, not only his powers and his
gifts but his emotions matured too, including his humor, his
compassion, his gentleness.  These were signs, mere seedlings, but
they were there.  Who knows what a remarkable human being he might
have matured into?  But he never had the chance.  He was taken very
young, before he could live through and up to that incredible promise
to leave many of us well behind.

So I would ask of all out there, if you cannot remember him fondly or
say anything nice about him, then please don't say anything (and if
you are the kind afflicted with a customary big mouth and absolutely
no sense of class, then do yourself a favor and zip it up for once).
Silence is fine.  But the present discussion is about jms's departure
and the apparently malicious stalking of a mediocre troll who, being
far older, ought perhaps to know better.

There was once a young of infinite promise who annoyed many with his
trolls but had at least the justification and saving grace of his
youth, humor and talent, and who --unlike this older troll--  showed
the promise of being able to mature emotionally.  If you can't find it
within you to say nothing positive about him, then just allow him to
rest in silence.

Cheers,

Jaime
                                                                               
                           
--- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32
 * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:14/400)