TBAY and personal styles

[Amanda Geist]

I wrote a post some time back, to the main list, I think, but I'm far from
certain. It involved the fact that some people tend to process information
objectively/logically, and some people tend to process it
subjectively/emotionally.

I think part of the TBAY disputes is this. It's a different style. The
reason it gets so heated--and to be honest, I've never seen any discussion
of the merits of TBAY that didn't--is that it does always seem to call into
question the validity of these different means of naturally processing
information.

Everyone's a mix--but I think that those who tend to like TBAY are those of
us who lean toward emotion. We are also the shippers (although I still deny
Snape/Lily is a ship--you can love someone without having a relationship).
And the canon content and value of the form is *intuitive* to those who
enjoy and use it; it's self-evident, why don't these other people *get* it?
It can't be the posts; they must be attacking the way I enjoy this list; it
must be my personal style they're faulting.

And those who lean more toward logic and objective analysis, the Davids and
Caiuses, the ones who make me nervous when I try to answer them--it's just
as clearly intuitive and self-evident that TBAY is a waste of time; fluff.
And critiques of them for not "getting it" or liking it, because it *can't*
be that self-evident stuff, shift off into personal reactions as well.

I think there's room for both styles, myself. Because most of us are a mix,
and have moods. Some days I feel like tackling a long TBAY post; some days I
don't. Just like any day on the list. Yeah, I run a certain risk of
restating something that has already been said if I jump in later, when I've
been skipping--but that risk occurs in either style of thread.

This discussion may be moot--TBAY occurred, I believe, as a response to the
doldrums of waiting around for book 5. It really was an insanely long wait.
There was nothing new under the sun. I remember rejoicing and congratulating
on the list when someone had a New Thought about something. It just didn't
happen. TBAY was an outlet, a way to make the list fun and fresh.

No, I don't think it was conscious; I think it was a natural evolution,
grounded in earlier list in-jokes (I myself bobbed along in an inner tube
(because Snape/Lily wasn't a ship) beside one of the first ships, towing my
little ice chest of margaritas, before the bay existed. The references are
built from the creative closing lines or intros to posts.

But we have new canon now, and TBAY isn't as prominent; it's fun, but it's
not the escape it used to be for many of us. Much like the heyday of movies
during the war. Or so I perceive.

Just another thought.

~Amanda in her personal capacity
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Those who cannot hear the music, think the dancers daft.