Re: A MODEST PROPOSAL

[Peter Evans peterev@xxxxxxxx]

To Carl Distefano's suggestion that "At the very least, quoting should be
the exception, not the rule", Harry Binswanger warns "let's not go too far.
The ability to snippet in reply is one of email's great advantages."

I'm so much in agreement with CD's opinion that I regret quoting even this
much. The ability to snippet in reply has presumably been with us since
the invention of writing. For centuries, people got along happily enough
without large-scale logoregurgitation. I for one can get along without it
in the 1990s, when it has become the norm for the very simple reason that
it's easier to repeat than not to repeat.

I say, if the index of quotation is going to top 30% or so (let alone 60%),
then at least let's quote from somebody who's not around to post for him or
herself. Here's one DWEM on the subject of another:

>Pardon me, *Mighty Poet*, nor despise
>My causeless, yet not impious, surmise.
>But I am now convinc'd, and none will dare
>Within thy Labours to pretend a Share.
>Thou hast not miss'd one thought that could be fit,
>And all that was improper dost omit:
>So that no room is here for Writers left,
>But to detect their Ignorance or Theft.