From: Penberriss Wendy S. penberriss@yahoo.com
By the time I've read enough to know I should delete it, it's too late. It seems like any subject can be given a sexual or innuendo twist, which IMHO often means turning an intelligent subject into a dirty joke.
And what, pray, is wrong with dirty jokes?
And too late for what? Are you actually being offended by the innuendo itself? If so, say so. Your position seems to be - not untypically for you, it now seems - rather unclear.
As for trivialisation of serious subjects (to call them 'intelligent' smacks of elitism to me), I hope I've clarified myself on this one. There are serious threads and there are silly threads, and it would be nice of the funster bunch to show a bit of respect and let us earnest types have a serious discussion once in a while. It's only polite.
It also seems like IMHO some people have become so wrapped up in fanfic (not just the slash stuff either) that they read it back into particular episodes too. And when someone suggests that the episode might not have been written with that intention, they appear to become furious.
'Furious' might be overstating the case a little, but this is not an unfair point. The dividing line between canon and fanon can become blurred in places, and people should take the trouble to discriminate between the two. In my experience, most do, and most treatment of fanon as canon arises in conversations between fans who know they have a shared fanonical perspective. That can, however, get awkward on a forum like this because that conversation is audible to everyone else, who might well not share that perspective and hence become variously confused, irritated or enraged.
There's probably a thesis in all this, if anyone's desperate enough.
Neil