You'll either know what I'm talking about or you won't...

[caddyman]

The written word is both a blessing and a curse. Frequently both at the same time and, in the same sentence or passage.

It allows you the luxury of carefully considering and nuancing your message in a manner that might not be immediately possible in spoken language, especially if you are prone to bouts of wit d'escalier and miss the moment.

On the other hand, it is this very flexibility that ensures that the many shades of meaning get reduced to the meaning of choice by the reader, who will frequently not see alternative interpretations. Such is the case with a piece I wrote recently, and which one or two of you will have seen posted in another place.

The upshot?

I am about to embark upon a simmer war with a very self-absorbed idiot.

Comments

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Has the infamous Mr Hook posted on Pagga or something? If so, let us have a link g'won g'won.

[delvy.livejournal.com]

I hope the reply was appropriate to the individual in question and that it will be understood by that individual in it's totality. I know the first will be true but greatly doubt the second. Assuming much of course ;-)

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

You assume pretty much correctly ;-)

[littleonions.livejournal.com]

Who, what, where, when? enquiring minds want to know.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I have said too much already.

Suffice it to say that this person may be related to Peter Pan's nemesis.

[delvy.livejournal.com]

Tinkerbell?

[kt-peasant.livejournal.com]

You, dear sir, are too cruel. Let there be linkage, that those of us who admire your deftness with the English language may admire the combat.

Boo!

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Knowing nothing for the circumstances, I would still enjoy observing the arena: but I understand that sometimes enough is too much.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

You're a deucedly cryptic cove, Bwy, and are you sure it's worth the effort? When things get that knotty for me, with someone who is either too dense or stubborn to see my meaning, I lose the patience to carefully choose my words, and give the obtuse blighter a well-aimed "ah, bollocks t'ye then" from the hip. Why waste wit on wankers?* Let your perfectly acceptable post stand, as you have no control over how others will interpret it, rather than taking it at face value as your personal opinion, to which you are entitled.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree? They don't call me Two-Dog for nothin'...

*Ooh, how liltingly alliterative!

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I just like playing with words.

The problem is that while I am comfortable dealing with this person, using oblique and ambiguous phrasing, I am less happy to post it up where the celebration of this person's dimness my find its way back to him, even if only by accident.

In short, I am having difficulty(somewhat hypocritically, I guess)in talking about a dunderhead behind his back.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Yes, it would be mean of us to point and laugh behind his back, especially if the chap is sincere, however wrongheadedly. It's obviously your playful obliqueness and ambiguity that are foxing the poor fellow.