Re: A Real puzzler

["M.W. Poirier" poirmw@xxxxxxxx]

 Believe it or not, I agree. In the best of all
 possible worlds emoticons are not needed. But
 even with both emoticons and "seriously" at least
 one person was able to misread the intent of the
 passage. So maybe a belt and suspenders is not
 a bad idea at times.

 As for sarcasm and irony, I think that we delude
 ourselves if we think that this comes across in
 writing as easily as it comes across in speech.
 There is always inflection in voice, a glint in
 the eye, etc., that goes along with ironic speech.
 But I don't see that in an e-mail message from a
 group of people I don't know personally. If we
 knew one another, maybe we would be able to detect
 it. But we don't, do we? Moreover, there are
 whole language and cultural worlds that separate
 us, wherein often certain formalities are breached
 only after a signal informing us that this is
 going to happen. When the signal does not come
 before the breach, the ironic person may just
 come across as a rude curmudgeon.

 M.W. Poirier


-----
On Sun, 15 Jul 2007, Wolfgang Bechstein wrote:

> "Robert Holmgren"  wrote:
>
> > The graphical emoticons, impossible to ignore, are soooo stupid,
> > and usually follow a particularly labored attempt to be
> > humorous. What's wrong with nuance, sarcasm, irony, in plain
> > text?
>
> Nothing at all; I'm fully with you there. In fact, I think that the
> remark in M.W.'s message could have easily dispensed with the markers,
> and still have come across as a good-natured rib. Heck, he even
> continued with "Seriously, ..."
>
> Wolfgang "r u sirius" Bechstein
> bechstein@xxxxxxxx
>