Sheenagh,
Roddy's point was specific in that it was about
the impersonation of a suicidally depressed woman.
This impersonation was designed to sabotage a sensitive
discussion and an important discussion
(possibly more than we know) about depression among poets.
I'm really disappointed it happened and have the lowest
view of the perpetrator.
You Sheenagh Pugh <[log in to unmask]>wrote:-
some do
> it for purposes of criminal deception
and I would like to point out that in Victoria (and it is probably
the same in New South Wales), where death by hanging has been
abolished as a punishment ( by act of government statute),
flogging is still on the books and available to the courts as
a sentencing option.
sincerely
Hugh Tolhurst
----- Original Message -----
From: Sheenagh Pugh <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 8:58 PM
Subject: Re identity
> In reply to Roddy Lumsden, who wrote about "people
> abusing the list with false identities... Surely there
> must be some way of checking that list members are
> genuine before they sign up?"
>
> Who says you can't be "genuine" and use a different
> name sometimes, if it happens to express another side
> of your personality? Ever since I discovered how easy
> it is to get email addresses without identifying
> yourself, I've used, for different purposes, (and not
> here) three or four e-identities that aren't the ones
> I was born with, but which enable me to say or do
> things my first identity might not. I know a fair
> number of others who are into this. Admittedly some do
> it for purposes of criminal deception but most are
> just interested in, for example, knowing how it feels
> to have people react to what you say in the belief
> that you're a man rather than a woman - certainly
> makes odds to the patronising attitude of some men.
> Isn't pretending to be someone else, creating a
> character, part of what writers do anyway? Personally
> I don't care whether the character's fictional or not,
> provided he/she says interesting things. And so what
> of you react to them in the belief that they're real?
> It doesn't make you a fool, and it doesn't mean your
> sympathy is wasted, unless you have so little of it
> that you can't spare any. I've felt pain for plenty of
> fictional characters and I always assumed that if
> anything, it would help me react more sympathetically
> to real people too. It would be better to open up to
> potential "bores and clowns" than to be a cliquish
> little in-group with the same names constantly
> responding to each others' quips, sneers and musings.
>
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