David Meadows
Mon, 11 Mar 2002, 10:44 pmWalter Plinge10 posts in thread
David Meadows
Mon, 11 Mar 2002, 10:44 pmI do not live in Perth, or know anyone involved in professional theatre there, but I feel that I would like to express an opinion on the myriad posts of the above Mr Meadows. Now maybe all the polite people who responded to your various posts cannot come out and say this: as a total outsider I must state that I have rarely seen anyone express such a simplified black and white view of the world. Moreover your treatment, sir, of those who express a dissentind view can be rude anf offhand.
Now you may in fact be a lovely man who wouldn't say boo to a goose, but you come across in your posts as a blinkered, arrogant intellectual snob. Professional v amateur; "safe" theatre v controversial ....there is good and bad on all sides and one should be careful about these ridiculous swingeing generalisations. If you want a defence of simple entertainment for instance, then see Preston Sturges masterpiece "Sullivan's Travels"
If you are the same man as the actor playing Hamlet then I advise you consider the lines
"there is nothing either good or bad
but thinking makes it so..."
Now you may in fact be a lovely man who wouldn't say boo to a goose, but you come across in your posts as a blinkered, arrogant intellectual snob. Professional v amateur; "safe" theatre v controversial ....there is good and bad on all sides and one should be careful about these ridiculous swingeing generalisations. If you want a defence of simple entertainment for instance, then see Preston Sturges masterpiece "Sullivan's Travels"
If you are the same man as the actor playing Hamlet then I advise you consider the lines
"there is nothing either good or bad
but thinking makes it so..."
RE: David Meadows
Thu, 14 Mar 2002, 10:02 pmWalter Plinge
David
Thank you for responding to my last post. I should here point out that I am not disagreeing with your views (I am about ninety per cent with you in fact), but rather with the single-mindedness and lack of consideration paid to alternative viewpoints which lead your posts to seem arrogant, if not rude. I had hoped that you might therefore respond well if challenged in kind. Indeed your initial response was rather impressive.
Now I have been an actor for nearly 25 years. I have worked in both professional and amateur capacities (and indeed still do both). Even at present, with bugger all money in my account, I am directing a play for no payment because I believe that the artistic quality of the work merits it. However I do not believe in making the generalisations that you seem so fond of. The older I get the more the world appears in shades of grey, rather than black or white. And still I find that your viewpoint seems to make theatre into a duty, even a chore, rather than a pleasure.
Anyway, thanks for responding at all. And a very big thank you for your post script. It was so kind and generous of you to say: "BTW, no need to thank me for fixing the myriad of spelling errors and incorrectly applied words in your post". I must thank you, however, as I feel very few others would take this care and trouble. I was a little puzzled. I ran my post through a spell checker to find only two errors. You cannot of course have been referring to these as they were clearly typos and not spelling mistakes ("anf" for "and" for example). But these two and an omitted apostrophe were all I could see. This is my own fault. Circumstances force me to use an Internet Cafe, and the clunky interface and rapidly counting down clock make accurate proof reading very difficult, but hey! what do I expect when I offer my services for free instead of earning enough in a proper job. I was thrown by your word "myriad". Can it really be applies to three or four? My dictionary says it means "countless, innumerable". Perhaps you did not have a dictionary to hand? You ought to be careful, many might just take it otherwise as a cheap and sneering attack.
And a very big thank you for editing my "incorrectly applied words". By this I presume you mean your silent rewriting of my phrase "swingeing generalisations" to "sweeping generalisations". This was very helpful of you. But aren't you being a little hard on yourself? Your choice of phrase (a little trite for me), implies wide ranging and random. This I feel is totally against my meaning. You do not use a scatter gun approach at all. I used the word "swingeing" which the New Oxford defines as "severe or extreme". it comes from the OE swengan meaning "to shake". Perhaps you were unfamiliar with the term? In such cases I prefer to look it up rather than just alter someone's words to fit my own vocabulary. It could seem so arrogant! I realise that if you do not own a dictionary this may be difficult.
But anyway warmest thanks David. Please do let me know next time you fell the need to write my posts for me and I will see if I cannot rise to some kind of payment. You could make a little profit, you may even save enough to buy that dictionary.
Sebastian.
Thank you for responding to my last post. I should here point out that I am not disagreeing with your views (I am about ninety per cent with you in fact), but rather with the single-mindedness and lack of consideration paid to alternative viewpoints which lead your posts to seem arrogant, if not rude. I had hoped that you might therefore respond well if challenged in kind. Indeed your initial response was rather impressive.
Now I have been an actor for nearly 25 years. I have worked in both professional and amateur capacities (and indeed still do both). Even at present, with bugger all money in my account, I am directing a play for no payment because I believe that the artistic quality of the work merits it. However I do not believe in making the generalisations that you seem so fond of. The older I get the more the world appears in shades of grey, rather than black or white. And still I find that your viewpoint seems to make theatre into a duty, even a chore, rather than a pleasure.
Anyway, thanks for responding at all. And a very big thank you for your post script. It was so kind and generous of you to say: "BTW, no need to thank me for fixing the myriad of spelling errors and incorrectly applied words in your post". I must thank you, however, as I feel very few others would take this care and trouble. I was a little puzzled. I ran my post through a spell checker to find only two errors. You cannot of course have been referring to these as they were clearly typos and not spelling mistakes ("anf" for "and" for example). But these two and an omitted apostrophe were all I could see. This is my own fault. Circumstances force me to use an Internet Cafe, and the clunky interface and rapidly counting down clock make accurate proof reading very difficult, but hey! what do I expect when I offer my services for free instead of earning enough in a proper job. I was thrown by your word "myriad". Can it really be applies to three or four? My dictionary says it means "countless, innumerable". Perhaps you did not have a dictionary to hand? You ought to be careful, many might just take it otherwise as a cheap and sneering attack.
And a very big thank you for editing my "incorrectly applied words". By this I presume you mean your silent rewriting of my phrase "swingeing generalisations" to "sweeping generalisations". This was very helpful of you. But aren't you being a little hard on yourself? Your choice of phrase (a little trite for me), implies wide ranging and random. This I feel is totally against my meaning. You do not use a scatter gun approach at all. I used the word "swingeing" which the New Oxford defines as "severe or extreme". it comes from the OE swengan meaning "to shake". Perhaps you were unfamiliar with the term? In such cases I prefer to look it up rather than just alter someone's words to fit my own vocabulary. It could seem so arrogant! I realise that if you do not own a dictionary this may be difficult.
But anyway warmest thanks David. Please do let me know next time you fell the need to write my posts for me and I will see if I cannot rise to some kind of payment. You could make a little profit, you may even save enough to buy that dictionary.
Sebastian.