From: Ashton7@aol.com

I humbly beg your pardon, Neil. Obviously my knowledge and direct

experience

with a dozen or more fandoms spread out over two decades or more doesn't entitle me to make any observations about what fans generally are like,

what

they like, what they like to discuss, what they like to do, or just about anything else.

You're entitled to make your observations. That doesn't mean that the conclusions you choose to draw are necessarily correct. As for your knowledge and experience, admittedly it amounts to more than my puny nine or ten years of just one fandom, but it counts for exactly the same as mine - total squit.

My observation of and participation in discussions on this Lyst over more than two years run totally counter to the nature of fannish discourse you are trying to present as an unqualified norm. It is common practice to cite evidence in support of speculation, as a perusal of the list archives will swiftly reveal. It is not common practice to make blanket assertions undefended by any kind of evidence beyond a vague and unsubstantiated concept of typical fannish discourse.

"Let 'em have at it", you say of the essayists (as you choose to call them, in celebration of your self-glorified inverted snobbery). Unless of course they happen to disagree with you, in which case their arguments count for nothing, their mode of practice becomes irrelevant, and their conclusions can be discounted without even being subjected to critical consideration.

Perhaps you'd like to correct my spelling now? Or my grammar? Or perhaps you'd like to tell me some more boring scientific statistics?

In other words, actually taking the trouble to find evidence that might validate an argument is boring? That people who might have solid grounds for asserting their point of view are boring? Or simply that anyone who dares to challenge your unsubstantiated assertions can be labelled as 'boring', and hence dismissed without the need to construct a solid counter-argument?

Yours is the language of the anti-intellectual moron, the ultimately timorous soul who will not enter into constructive dialogue because he or she is just too damn cowardly to face up to the possible conclusions. Their tactics are old and hackneyed, from diversion through feigned misunderstanding to outright dismissal in the name of 'fun'. You might have done it to others, but you will *not* do it to me, because I am not going to *let* you.

Any killfiling on your part will be considered an admission of defeat.

Neil