Writing Style: Nonargumentative

[Recidiva]

I'm going to give it a try.

I shall refrain from the mechanics of humor and skewed perspective in order to amuse myself.

Now I need a subject or two.

Ideas?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Food and sex. Yum!

 

[Recidiva]

Food and sex. Yum!

These are good things.

My parents taught my daughter to say "I don't prefer that" to "I hate that" when she is offered food at their home. It's awkward, but I'll try it here.

I don't prefer wine. I don't prefer bleu cheese.

I prefer sweat and laughter in my food and my sex. Though takeout and quickie is a lot of fun too.

Robert Fulghum:

"Americans, it is observed, prefer definite answers. Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay. Yes or no. No grays, please. In Indonesia, there is a word in common use that nicely wires around the need for black and white. Belum is the word and it means ‘not quite yet.’ A lovely word implying continuing possibility.

“Do you speak English?”

“Belum.” Not quite yet.

“Do you have any children?” “Belum.”

"Do you know the meaning of life?” “Belum.”

It is considered both impolite and cynical to say, “No!” outright. This leads to some funny moments. “Is the house on fire?” “Belum.” Not quite yet. It’s an attitude kin to that old vaudeville joke: “Do you play the violin?” “I don’t know, I never tried.” Perhaps. Maybe. Possibly.

Not yes or no, but squarely within the realm of what might be. Soft edges are welcome in this great bus ride of human adventure.

Is this the best of all possible worlds? Belum.

Is the world coming to an end? Belum.

Will we live happily ever after? Belum.

Have we learned to live without weapons of mass destruction? Belum.

In some ways, we don’t know. We’ve never tried. Is it hopeless to think that we might someday try?

Belum. Not quite yet."

 

[cloudy]

I love that.

Native mothers have a...word, I guess you'd call it, and in talking to Dino, she says that Vietnamese mothers use the same word for the same purpose, but I have yet to hear/learn it's equivalent in English. Perhaps Indonesian has one?

I'll phonetically spell it, since I have no other way. It's "eeyah."

examples:

Eeyah! = Don't eat that! It's nasty!

Eeyah! = You've been playing in the mud and got your new clothes filthy!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My favorite weasle expression is; REGARDLESS OF HOW I ANSWER THAT, SOMEBODIES GONNA SET THE DOG ON ME.

This is usually in response to YOUVE MADE A FINE MESS THIS TIME, MISTER JOHNSON! JUST WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO ABOUT IT?

But it works for most occasions.

 

[Recidiva]

I love that.

Native mothers have a...word, I guess you'd call it, and in talking to Dino, she says that Vietnamese mothers use the same word for the same purpose, but I have yet to hear/learn it's equivalent in English. Perhaps Indonesian has one?

I'll phonetically spell it, since I have no other way. It's "eeyah."

examples:

Eeyah! = Don't eat that! It's nasty!

Eeyah! = You've been playing in the mud and got your new clothes filthy!

I think also I was taught a child raising technique - with the caveat that it takes nerves of steel and occasionally backfires. I can't find the reference, but I think it was credited to the Blackfeet Nation.

"Oh what a good child!"

Adults take it upon themselves to always allow the child to have an "out" from bad behavior, by giving them a socially acceptable reason for doing what they're doing.

Catch a kid sneaking up behind another kid with a knife poised and an adult thinks fast and says "Oh what a good child! You're bringing that knife to your friend!"

Theoretically the kid, knowing they're caught anyway, takes the social escape gratefully, hands over the knife, smiles, and accepts being hailed as a hero instead of publiclly humiliated.

I do employ this method occasionally not only with children, but adults.

 

[Recidiva]

My favorite weasle expression is; REGARDLESS OF HOW I ANSWER THAT, SOMEBODIES GONNA SET THE DOG ON ME.

This is usually in response to YOUVE MADE A FINE MESS THIS TIME, MISTER JOHNSON! JUST WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO ABOUT IT?

But it works for most occasions.

Lit has taught me how much prophesy and prediction of other people's behavior, though I think it is funny, can just be flat out wrong and I'm suffering from a lack of imagination regarding the diversity of the human mind.

I am much less likely to assume certain behavior patterns mean inflexible realities. Many's the time that I've seen someone I disagree with say something stunningly insightful that I didn't think they were capable of thinking, much less expressing. This is my failure in my understanding of human nature

There are many damned if you do and damned if you don't situations that still are worth being damned.

 

[Stella_Omega]

heh, nerves of steel and a quick wit...

makes a nice change from freud's anal retentive training style

 

[Recidiva]

heh, nerves of steel and a quick wit...

makes a nice change from freud's anal retentive training style

See, in my head, I would never think it'd work. I'm just the kid that would want to say "You stupid adult, I was going to stab them! Stupid!"

Or I was.

Now I recognize the true benefits of benevolent social hypocricy and denial. I've always despised those conventions because I thought they indicated stupidity.

BUT...make someone think they're a hero and that you buy that they're a hero...and I'll be damned...but I become surrounded by true heroes I could never hope to be myself.

I had to try it to believe it. I certainly would not have thought of it myself.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

RECIDIVA

People who dont know me always assume three things about me, ALWAYS! It never fails.

They assume I hate queers, they assume I hate niggers, and they assume I never get anything done. Maybe I shouldnt call my friends faggots and jungle bunnies so much. And maybe remove my feet from my desk top.

 

[Stella_Omega]

See, in my head, I would never think it'd work. I'm just the kid that would want to say "You stupid adult, I was going to stab them! Stupid!"

Or I was.

Now I recognize the true benefits of benevolent social hypocricy and denial. I've always despised those conventions because I thought they indicated stupidity.

BUT...make someone think they're a hero and that you buy that they're a hero...and I'll be damned...but I become surrounded by true heroes I could never hope to be myself.

I had to try it to believe it. I certainly would not have thought of it myself.

You might not be that kind of kid if you'd been surrounded by that culture from birth. The few that did manage to be that contrary were called "contraries" and their personality peculiarities were also made into something positive...

 

[Recidiva]

RECIDIVA

People who dont know me always assume three things about me, ALWAYS! It never fails.

They assume I hate queers, they assume I hate niggers, and they assume I never get anything done. Maybe I shouldnt call my friends faggots and jungle bunnies so much. And maybe remove my feet from my desk top.

I think you enjoy fostering and creating that image.

It's a bit like wearing a wedding ring and then correcting people when they assume you're married.

 

[cloudy]

You might not be that kind of kid if you'd been surrounded by that culture from birth. The few that did manage to be that contrary were called "contraries" and their personality peculiarities were also made into something positive...

Contraries were thought to speak directly to the Creator*.

Maddening to speak to, I'm sure, since they said and did everything oppositely, but still spiritually sacred.

*I had originally used "God," but I wouldn't want the Creator to be confused with Wormie's "God." Two completely different spiritual sets.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Faulkner's story A ROSE FOR MISS EMILY speaks volumes about how I was raised. Two of my ancestors taught at Ole Miss in Oxford and lived next door to Faulkner. But you never-ever embarrassed a woman publicly.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

RECIDVA

I think it has more to do with being in close proximity to blacks and gays and crackers and injuns during my life.

Maybe CLOUDY will confirm it, but you often get a rude reception from other injuns once your ancestral tribe is known. You dont play for their team and they let you know it. So you adopt and adapt to the people you play with.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I think you enjoy fostering and creating that image.

It's a bit like wearing a wedding ring and then correcting people when assume you're married.

that's such a sweet and non-confrontational version of what jbj does... like near beer.

 

[Recidiva]

You might not be that kind of kid if you'd been surrounded by that culture from birth. The few that did manage to be that contrary were called "contraries" and their personality peculiarities were also made into something positive...

I try to pick and choose my tactics from as many sources as possible. I may be opposed to many of them by nature. But it is difficult to reasonably deny that many of them I might viscerally oppose have some basis in truth. It reflect's the nature of someone different than I am, but they might only answer to that when it calls.

For instance...I always grew up believing corporal punishment was always evil and cowardly.

Then I had a child that didn't respect anything else and challenged me on being a coward for not using it and instead trying to talk to her all the time.

Talk about irony.

I try to learn other people's languages, but my accent can be very poor.

I did prove I could use corporal punishment. I slapped her once in anger, on purpose, to show that I have the impulse and I'm not lacking in wanting to hit her, I'm rich in choosing not to do so.

I slapped her once, said "THIS is what you make people want to do." and then slapped her...again...'cause it felt really good.

Never hit her again, but I swear, she had more respect for me for doing it.

 

[Recidiva]

Contraries were thought to speak directly to the Creator*.

Maddening to speak to, I'm sure, since they said and did everything oppositely, but still spiritually sacred.

*I had originally used "God," but I wouldn't want the Creator to be confused with Wormie's "God." Two completely different spiritual sets.

I hadn't heard of Contraries. I love the idea.

 

[Recidiva]

Faulkner's story A ROSE FOR MISS EMILY speaks volumes about how I was raised. Two of my ancestors taught at Ole Miss in Oxford and lived next door to Faulkner. But you never-ever embarrassed a woman publicly.

Unfortunately I've never read it. I don't have the context here to catch on to how you were raised.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

STELLA

I learned it all at Don Rickles knee. And my drill instructor was pretty good too.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I'm going to give it a try.

I shall refrain from the mechanics of humor and skewed perspective in order to amuse myself.

Now I need a subject or two.

Ideas?

I'm gonna fuck with you and make blanket assertions that you will not be able to resist challengeing.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

RECIDIVA

Well, Emily was a penniless old woman from a prominent family. She had no money to pay her bills, taxes, or servants, plus she murdered her fiancee and slept with his corpse every night. But no one dared confront her about any of it. They went to her cousins in Georgia, and the cousins came to town to fix things.

So, when my thief sister stole stuff from the store and was discovered, I was sent to the store to quietly make amends. When one of my aunts got in the family way, she was quietly sent to the Florence Crittenden Home for a spell.

 

[Recidiva]

RECIDVA

I think it has more to do with being in close proximity to blacks and gays and crackers and injuns during my life.

Maybe CLOUDY will confirm it, but you often get a rude reception from other injuns once your ancestral tribe is known. You dont play for their team and they let you know it. So you adopt and adapt to the people you play with.

It might. I'm just expressing how I feel about it.

I've had close proximity myself and I try to help people understand me. Usually. I do occasionally get humor or satisfaction from having someone underestimate me or get suckered into assuming something about me that's untrue. Then I can easily provoke them into expressing it and making themselves look like a fool.

I'm so good at it that I know the mechanic and might be inappropriately applying it to you.

I do know the difference between behavior that's provoking and behavior that's reconciling. Between encouraging the expression of ignorance and attempting to correct it. I'm at least an amateur at both, if not an expert.

I haven't seen you try to make peace or understanding, but I'm not omnipotent.

 

[Recidiva]

STELLA

I learned it all at Don Rickles knee. And my drill instructor was pretty good too.

I never thought he was funny.

 

[Recidiva]

I'm gonna fuck with you and make blanket assertions that you will not be able to resist challengeing.

There is a difference between being argumentative...and disagreeing.

At least I hope so. Otherwise I am in really big trouble here.

At least I hope so.