I often wonder whether peoplehere really do take it seriously, or only pretend to.
For example, it's hard -- no, impossible -- for me to believe that Solon and Jewel, among others, took my speculation post to you for anything other than a joke. Perhaps a tasteless one, perhaps not -- that depends on your perceptions of taste, and we all know de gustibus and all that. But it's perfectly clear to me that they understood perfectly well, but were playing their games just as I was playing mine. Or, to use your analogy, reading their soap opera lines just as I was reading mine. I refuse to accept that posters of their intelligence were truly offended in any way. They know the way the game is played, and they play it.
There may be, though, one or two people who don't play it as a game. E comes to mind -- she takes everything so seriously, as though what happens here matters in the least in the scope of human endeavor. Poet either cares too much, or is an excellent actress playing her lines to perfection -- if the latter, she's good enough that she seems to have fooled a number of people into thinking she really does care too much. Of course, she weakens her role by coming over here, exposing herself intentionally to this awful, despicable, terrible, horrible soap-opera villain -- the wilting violet role does NOT call for that. So she's misplaying her lines a bit. But she still has parts of the audience in the same position as your grandmother, believing totally that the role is the reality. |
