I am probably going to regret getting tangled in this thread but...
Posted by Marie Bernadette on January 26, 1998 at 23:59:44:
In response to If she did, she would no longer be dancing, only moving formulaically..., written by PAtrick on January 26, 1998 at 16:37:06
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] Patrick:
] Improved? Again, how is that decided? When do you plant things? I might say, "When you feel like it." Not your view, perhaps, but a legitimate one for a person who believes that it is difficult to take just a little bit of measurement or a little bit of science. One could argue that "determining when to plant your garden according to the number of hours of daylight," or some such, is like that first hit of cocaine. With that innocent measurement comes the not-so-innocent measurement that says countries that have fewer than 50 phones per 100 people are underdeveloped. And the downright evil measurement that tells us the world is a thing we are standing upon. Can you get more plants per unit of area through measurement? Perhaps. But at what cost do you do so?
]Marie Bernadette:
Jonathan Swift is the perfect example of why we should not get carried away with measuring things! Gulliver's Travels is an imaginative work (before JA's time, but she may have read it) but talk about measuring! Jonathan Swift was a strange fellow. I read a brief biography of him. Psycologists would have had a field day with him. (And no, before I step on anyone's toes, I do not think all "rationalists" are weird; the mention of measurements made me think of Swift). I like to believe that life should be balanced, but also keep myself up at nights with questions on who or what should determine what balance is. What a fascinating disscussion! I think that JA balanced her life by the means that her society would allow. I mean, she tempered her ideas to fit societal constraints, both conciously and unconciously. As mentioned above, how else would she have gotten published or been taken seriously?
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