[1st line continues from previous post]
Yeah. Ready to move on.
I forget why, but I was thinking about [the usage of] swear words on the internet- I believe it was Eugene who made a comment about not being a big fan in general of cyber-cussing. And I agree, in fact here I will cuss with great caution. Still, it's quite funny really. If, out of the millions of explosively offensive things on the internet you get offended because I drop an F-bomb or two in this space, well, that would seem odd. And yet, being offended by such language would be neither terribly uncommon or inappropriate. Such is the beauty of the written word that it has managed to maintain its purity and power even when floating adrift in the vast sea of filth (and not) that is the interwebs.
My favorite line from my favorite book is a short one: "Manuscripts don't burn." It was a doubly ironic line because both the author who penned it and the character being told this line had indeed burned manuscripts, and quite successfully at that (both to
avoid Stalin-era Russian censors). Both authors were afraid of the consequences their writings might bring. And yet, with some help from others, the words of the authors came to light- in the book the Devil himself recreates and publishes the book, whereas the book of the flesh-and-blood author only came to light [initially in censored form] some 25 years after the author's death. So now I put thse words out into the evanescent web of ether. I'm not so sure the Devil (the speaker of the aforementioned line in the book) would make a similar insinuation about the immortality of this medium. But what do I know? The interet gives me one of those feelings that feel wrong and hollow. At first glance, it feels quite permanent, but anyone who ever lost their data on their hard drive can tell you that a pile of 0's and 1's are easy to lose. I think that the illusion of permanence may be related to the novelty of the internet, and how revolutionary it has been in that short time. A kind of "THIS IS THE FUTURE!"-type feeling. [Never trust a message in all caps with exclamation points- the internet taught me this.]
Uh, perhaps I should just keep my suppositions of what the devil thinks to myself. Probably a good general rule.
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