The Agony and the Ecstacy

[Steve]

---  "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> > bboyminn:
> >> 
> >> ...
> >> 
> >> But that is quite different from being vehemently 
> >> incensed over some minor point, or because your
> >> favorite plot line wasn't resolved the way you 
> >> wanted. Annoyed-OK, but vehemently incensed is over
> >> the top. 
> > 
> > Magpie:
> > Isn't that what we do in fandom, nit-pick over 
> > different points? I've ignored tons of threads that
> > nitpicked over the years trying to cover plot-holes
> > I didn't need covered. ...
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Right, on this point I agree with Magpie. I mean, 
> Steve does it matter whether criticism is on small
 points or major ones?
> 
> We do nitpick all the time and like for example if 
> we were on LOTR discussion group, you bet I would 
> ask you to explain in more details what did you 
> find so dull and confusing about LOTR. :)
>


bboyminn:

You've both either missed or ignored my point, though
you have made some other points that are valid.

I never said, you couldn't or shouldn't criticize
points; major or minor. I said, when a person becomes
so /vehmently incense/ as to border on irrational,
it's time to dial it back a notch or two. When Harry
is being vilified and Slytherins are being cannonized;
I THINK the discussion has gone too far. 

I further acknowledge that exaggeration was a common
way of making a point stand out. You do it, I do it,
we all do it. But there is a limit to how much you
can exaggerate something before it become unresonably
extreme.  

As to my ILLUSTRATION, it is not an example of anything;
a point a clearly and repeatedly made. It is an isolated
removed-from-context illustration of a point I was 
trying to make, and I noted the removal from context 
several times. But like it or not this person literally
said '...Gryffindor are Nazis...' and '...Sltherins are
Jews...'. As a stand alone statement that is pretty 
extreme. But I also acknowledge this was part of a 
larger discussion and that some context might have 
existed for the comparison. 

Further, in what I assume is that same discussion, or 
at least on that same topic, I thought a recent exchange 
between Magpie and Sydney was very well reasoned, and
found it a fascinating exchange, even though I disagreed
with parts of it. It was the moderating of overblown
rhetoric that made it a brilliant well-reasoned 
discussion.

So, it is not discussion that I am trying to squelch, it
is the 'overblown rhetoric'. 

But then that's just my opinion.

Steve/bboyminn