- Dorothy L Sayers, Busman’s Honeymoon
- Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
- Terry Pratchett – Various Discworld books
Kathy recently posted..The up side

It’s a shame you feel that way, Kathy. There are plenty of us who don’t turnover at lightning-speed and more of us who value a considered opinion. I believe there are plenty of good lessons for everyone in returning to a hot topic once it’s cooled down.
Cam @ notunimportant.com recently posted..Topic pools and relative timing: about blog monetisation

In it there is a character who seems to want to unleash some secret or some such thing about another character. The main character (Alicia) picks up on what’s he up to right away and basically says (I’m paraphrasing) ‘Don’t put me in the middle of your thing. I’m too busy’

I love the way she says that and I’ve always wanted to be too busy to concern myself with trivialities and the special causes of others. I fail often, but I care less and less…

I think emotion is part of argument and in fact, emotionless arguments are less persuasive than ones that contain genuine passion. So it’s not emotionalism per se that bothers me – it’s when combatants elevate emotion to a primacy that means a) logic and reason are abandoned, and b) everyone is flailing about tossing ad homs and non sequiters merrily like bombs (ie when people stop trying to convince, and start trying simply to insult and hurt).

I admit that I also keep my head down with Internet arguments on the whole. Partly because, as a commenter upthread indicated, I think they are mostly pointless; partly because I am somewhat cautious about sticking my neck out and copping attacks that either make me imprudently wrathful, or upset me. There is enough in my off-screen life that does those things – I don’t need to buy new trouble.

Mostly, though, it’s neither of these – it’s that my shades-of-grey moral compass doesn’t move fast enough to arrive at a firm position before the debate is effectively over. I read the … thing … on Twitter last night and thought about it a lot. I think a lot of strong points were made, but I am still mulling over what my final opinion is; by the time I arrive at it, no-one will care anymore, the conversation will be obsolete. (This happened to me with the whole Samantha Brick business, for instance – it took me ages to think through exactly what I thought was problematic about it and arrive at how I’d respond, but by the time I did, the issue was stale and writing it up would’ve served no purpose).
Kathy recently posted..Happy birthday E