caerula's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- truth I spent much of yesterday, when I wasn't actually working, finishing up the resdesign on my other pages, which I'm not going to link to here as they include my actual name. Later, it occured to me that there is no kind of continuity on those pages at all, and maybe I should use the same background throughout. But I'm so easily bored, and I love different backgrounds. So I'm going to leave it like it is for a while and see if I get any complaints. I haven't gotten any Google hits for this page yet, but I do get some interesting ones for that one, considering it is a rather innocuous page of reading lists, links, and photos. I'm rather frustrated with myself and the List right now. We are discussing Gaudy Night and the discussion was starting off rather slow, so I posted what I thought were some salient points on why I find the actual plot of the book to be a bit boring, with all the academia and lack of a good juicy murder. I was playing devil's advocate, somewhat -- I like the book, it is in fact one of my favorite books, but not for the mystery. And it seems to be nearly everyone's favorite on List, and I was forseeing a bunch of posts on how great it was, which doesn't inspire a lot of discussion. I've gotten some worthwhile feedback, but more like the one that said I was misreading the book, committing logical fallacies and likened my attitude to that of people who burn books, and by extension people. I think that was a bit much, really. And then a bunch of other people chip in with "Hey, I love Gaudy Night," which I think misses my point entirely. I felt that I wasn't explaining myself well, so I gave up. Then last night I was Chatting with some list members, a couple of whom mentioned that they agreed with my opinion about the book, found the mystery not at all intriguing, and that it wasn't one of their favorites. Well, damnit, why don't they post on that and provide me with a bit of backup, so I'm not a lone voice crying in the wilderness? They, in fact, seemed to feel much more strongly about it than I do, since I was posting basically to foment discussion. I don't mind being in the minority, and if people can't argue their point with logical reasoning instead of just telling me I'm just wrong then I'm not going to argue with them, but a little bit of back-up from people who've said they agree with me would be nice. Phelps, of course, came through, but the discussion we tried to get going about the nature of truth faltered under a deluge of personal love stories. Aargh. My point was, I think, is academic "truth" really worth sacrificing yourself and your family for? How important is academic truth? It's important, sure, but it is also not constant, and how can you sacrifice yourself for something that probably will change next week? Truth is important, in most situations, but I've found myself lying like a rug if it means helping someone or, occasionally, just to get out of something I really don't want to do. I don't feel good about it afterwards, but I don't think it makes me an awful person, or hurts anyone else. Maybe it does, and I'm going to Hell. That's what I was taught when I was little, not by my parents thankfully, but certainly at church. Which is one of the reasons I don't go to church anymore. I'm rather uncomfortable with the "truths" I learned there, a Christian fundamentalist church. I've completely gotten away form my original point here, so I'll stop for now and get to work. 7:52 a.m. - 2001-06-28 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||
|
||||||