Further request
- Points: 556
Newborn of Lothlorien
Posts: 444
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2023 12:42 pm
I have no doubt that my complaint is going to be treated seriously. Meanwhile, could you please remove all the threads I made since I deliriously decided to listen to @Chrysophylax Dives and signed up? No rush, I just wouldn't want people to keep discussing my threads. Thanks in advance.
- Points: 4 777
Tree
Posts: 3136
Joined: Sun May 17, 2020 7:54 pm
Hoi @Ephtariat,
A century ago a member of Kings College, Cambridge wrote a novel entitled Where Angels Fear to Tread. It is about a disastrous love affair between an Italian man and an English woman, concluding with a dead baby. The novel is constructed out of outrageous cultural stereotypes, but somehow is still acceptable today because (a) that kind of English prejudice has been forgotten, and (b) the novel uses those prejudices to mercilessly dissect English hypocricy. I mention all this for no better reason than to say that I am no doubt a fool for writing this post.
I see so much of myself in you. The passion, the scholarship, the absolute resolve to go your own way, come what may, because you sense for yourself where the truth is to be found. The world is a better place for the fact that you are alive, as most certainly is the goldfish bowl of Tolkien scholarship. Your take on the world is refreshing and you are yourself a tonic for weary souls. I would be happy if you found a way to reconcile yourself with this site and its members (and admins).
You were not delusional when you signed up to join this site. But possibly you did not hear all of what I was trying to say about the plaza. You can treat it as you wish - a place to copy and paste your PhD research, to publish a short story, to play riddles, and to talk the Lore of Tolkien. And you can do so in the manner that you wish. But this is a small site with only a few members, and the riddles, stories, and Lore are not ultimately what the site is. The people are what this site is. So if you wish to make the site work for you, the key is buttering up the people.
Honestly, I am aware that this post is a case of the kettle calling the pot black. When I say I see my passion in you, I am not choosing my words lightly. Believe it or not, I have lost my temper on the plaza more than once, not only with you. After I lost my temper with you I was told off by two of the admins. That made me more mad. They were right. I say to you again: I was wrong to speak to you like that, and I apologize. But I'm not that sorry. Because, like you, I get impatient with what can feel like a frigid north European culture of excessive politeness that will slowly torture us all to death by tedious boredom. I do know the feeling that, as with the Hobbits of the Shire, an invasion of dragons might be good for plaza members.
So I'm not telling you off. I'm just asking what the point was of returning with aggression in your heart? Why not come back with a genuine desire to discover what it is that other people are not getting? Why not ask each person, engage with them, before projecting your interpretation on to them? Just slow down and talk to people, one by one.
I'll swap this around and talk to you as a fellow scholar. Nobody is born with wisdom and learning, it takes years and years of reading and thinking things out for oneself. And you know this. But those who lose themselves in the learning and the thinking are liable to lose sight of other people. I know this for myself - and my own family will back me up with some bitterness. If we were studying physics or something that might not matter, at least in terms of the scholarship. But we are studying ideas that have no meaning, that become twisted, if we lose sight of other people. I am 100 per cent serious when I say that posting here and learning to appreciate what other people are about is the best discipline for any Tolkien scholar.
A century ago a member of Kings College, Cambridge wrote a novel entitled Where Angels Fear to Tread. It is about a disastrous love affair between an Italian man and an English woman, concluding with a dead baby. The novel is constructed out of outrageous cultural stereotypes, but somehow is still acceptable today because (a) that kind of English prejudice has been forgotten, and (b) the novel uses those prejudices to mercilessly dissect English hypocricy. I mention all this for no better reason than to say that I am no doubt a fool for writing this post.
I see so much of myself in you. The passion, the scholarship, the absolute resolve to go your own way, come what may, because you sense for yourself where the truth is to be found. The world is a better place for the fact that you are alive, as most certainly is the goldfish bowl of Tolkien scholarship. Your take on the world is refreshing and you are yourself a tonic for weary souls. I would be happy if you found a way to reconcile yourself with this site and its members (and admins).
You were not delusional when you signed up to join this site. But possibly you did not hear all of what I was trying to say about the plaza. You can treat it as you wish - a place to copy and paste your PhD research, to publish a short story, to play riddles, and to talk the Lore of Tolkien. And you can do so in the manner that you wish. But this is a small site with only a few members, and the riddles, stories, and Lore are not ultimately what the site is. The people are what this site is. So if you wish to make the site work for you, the key is buttering up the people.
Honestly, I am aware that this post is a case of the kettle calling the pot black. When I say I see my passion in you, I am not choosing my words lightly. Believe it or not, I have lost my temper on the plaza more than once, not only with you. After I lost my temper with you I was told off by two of the admins. That made me more mad. They were right. I say to you again: I was wrong to speak to you like that, and I apologize. But I'm not that sorry. Because, like you, I get impatient with what can feel like a frigid north European culture of excessive politeness that will slowly torture us all to death by tedious boredom. I do know the feeling that, as with the Hobbits of the Shire, an invasion of dragons might be good for plaza members.
So I'm not telling you off. I'm just asking what the point was of returning with aggression in your heart? Why not come back with a genuine desire to discover what it is that other people are not getting? Why not ask each person, engage with them, before projecting your interpretation on to them? Just slow down and talk to people, one by one.
I'll swap this around and talk to you as a fellow scholar. Nobody is born with wisdom and learning, it takes years and years of reading and thinking things out for oneself. And you know this. But those who lose themselves in the learning and the thinking are liable to lose sight of other people. I know this for myself - and my own family will back me up with some bitterness. If we were studying physics or something that might not matter, at least in terms of the scholarship. But we are studying ideas that have no meaning, that become twisted, if we lose sight of other people. I am 100 per cent serious when I say that posting here and learning to appreciate what other people are about is the best discipline for any Tolkien scholar.
Eat earth. Dig deep. Drink water.
- Points: 6 920
Steward of Gondor
Posts: 3608
Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 3:34 pm
@Ephtariat . Your complaint is up to @Narv, who's been tagged both on plaza and discord to take a look.
Also... I'm sorry but deleting that many threads is a no go for multiple reasons. It wouldn't be just your posts we'd be deleting but also the posts of other members. Only deleting yours and leaving others without the necessary context, leaves us with a very weird situation. None of the current admins have any desire to set a precedence for granting such a request.
I'm moving this thread to admin messages since it was meant for us and it isn't a lore discussion.
Also... I'm sorry but deleting that many threads is a no go for multiple reasons. It wouldn't be just your posts we'd be deleting but also the posts of other members. Only deleting yours and leaving others without the necessary context, leaves us with a very weird situation. None of the current admins have any desire to set a precedence for granting such a request.
I'm moving this thread to admin messages since it was meant for us and it isn't a lore discussion.
Arnyn ~ Honor & Valor
Kaylin ~ Joy & Strength
Kaylin ~ Joy & Strength
