Bonnie, thanks -- very much -- for the summary of your book.
I must make some comments about the messages on this net.
I will initiate my comments by noting that I recently joined, and then
quit, a net that looked very promising. My decision was based on my conclusion
that the messages on that net were riddled with what I have come to call
NETALK. NETALK [my definition] is a kind of language, rhetoric, style, etc.,
which emulates the discourse of certain "attack radio" commentators who have
become popular in the USA. The discoursers who use NETALK seem to have been
schooled in the Eddie Murphy style of wise-assed language.
I have detected only one serious case of NETALK on PCP.
Another aspect of some the nets I have observed seems to be a
reluctance to give information on one's own texts. To do so, on those nets, is
to expose one's self to a charge of "elitism" -- i.e., if you can't stay down
at our level, don't bother to participate.
Thus, I particularly appreciate a message such as Bonnie Shapiro's,
telling us succinctly how her publication can be useful in dealing with the
topic being discussed by the current contributors.
Thanks . . .
Jim Mancuso
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