From: damiel@netcom.com (Paul Theodoropoulos)
Subject: Re: Coppola's DRACULA
X-Spook-Fodder: hero heroin tree shrub bush birth life death FBI CIA NSA
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 17:34:03 GMT

In <1993Jan19.144013.28263@Princeton.EDU> egnilges@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Edward G. Nilges) writes:
>In article <1993Jan19.015207.16882@netcom.com> damiel@netcom.com (Paul Theodoropoulos) writes:
>>
>>it's a recursive thing, Ed. 
>>
>>you still don't understand.

>I'd suggest that the lack of understanding is yours.  Your parody, which
>was only mildly amusing and completely unoriginal (being part of a genre
>of bashing the "political correct" which has been around for years), is
>inferior to the real thing, in which I was able to draw bonafide
>connections and continually drain the stack (which a smart young punk
>like you knows is a data structure for supporting recursion) by
>returning repeatedly to the issue at hand: whether Francis Ford Coppola
>is, as I claim, a Fascist and without talent.  Your parody does not
>return to this claim in this fashion.

you *still* don't get it, though i do appreciate the "smart young
punk" ad hominem. its the war of the Smart Young Punks versus the
Pompous Pseudo Intellectuals! Let's see who will actually be sent to
bosnia-herzegovina to fight the Serbs, and who will cower behind a
desk and volunteer *others* to fight the Serbs! 

i can demonstrate conclusively that a bar of soap is the antichrist,
with enough recursive, reductio ad absurdum supposititious
prevarications. reality has something else in mind, however.

what you consider "bona fide" connections are in point of fact the
most tenuous of connections, almost a carbon copy of the deterministic
arguments that that fellow on PBS (can't for the life of me recall his
name - its a series on the history of science and invention) makes
when he shows conclusively that the invention of the delinting cotton
farfenagle in 1822 was directly responsible for the pocket calculator.

>And you may think that the racism and sexism of our society are amusing;
>I don't.  

i have no idea where you get this idea. but it doesn't surprise me
that you would presume so, based on your extraordinary ability to
judge others by that which you *think* they must surely believe. yes,
there's nobody fairer than the man who makes egregious
generalizations! is there a difference between saying "i've
encountered hip, cool, alienated young men who were skin-head nazis,
therefore all who meet the initial criteria must satisfy the
conclusion", and "i've encountered young black males who were intent
upon thievery and violence, therefore all young black males are
thieves and murderers."?

you do not do your argument any favors by _labeling_ me or others who
disagree with you. by that same argument, i must confess that my
labeling you a "pseudo intellectual" is no different, and thus i
apologize for the ad hominem.
 
by the way, you left out "hip, cool, baby killer" and "hip, alienated
rapist".


>Also, you lied when you told the net that you'd continued a discussion
>with me by electronic mail.  I received no communication from you.  Why
>didn't you just 'fess up, and admit that your intellectual equipment
>was, and remains, inadequate save for feeble parody of the discussion at
>hand?

oh, curses! ed has dealt his opponent a *devastating* blow! 

yes, i did lie about sending you email. after reading and rereading
the post to which i made that terse reply, i was disabused of the
notion that there was a cogent, unifying argument to respond to.
upon further reflection, i decided that i did *not* wish to engage you
via email. i would much rather your delusional ramblings be witnessed
by others. sadly, this delightful sparring has reached the point at
which neither the post i'm responding to nor this very response are even
remotely related to the movie D------. i'm sure you will protest
(voluminously) to the contrary, ed, but then - that is your way.

i however, have no more "feeble parody" left in me. you may continue
your content-free rants about the fascist coppola commanding the
serbian rapists to do his bidding. 

i guess you've won, ed. the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

-- 
paul theodoropoulos     damiel@netcom.com     (hooools@well.sf.ca.us)

"Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it."
      -Albert Camus