Re: the uses of self-descriptions

Russ Hunt (HUNT who-is-at academic.stu.StThomasU.ca)
Sun, 28 Sep 1997 09:10:42 AST

Jay says,

> Another potential difficult with the present procedure is that
> people write their S-Ds before they really know who they are
> writing to and 'what we expect' beyond what the instructions call
> for. Writing an S-D is rather a good exercise in self-analysis and
> identity-construction, I think. It has been for me the 2-3 times
> I've done it here.

Yes. This is a special case of my own rule that I never post to a
list till I have some sense of how it sounds & what it's about.
Which is really all I was saying about not finding the S-Ds very
helpful. And then, well, it always seems to me I can tell more about
someone from what they do and say in work and conversation than from
what they say about themselves . . .

> What might be valuable is for newcomers to re-do their initial
> S-Ds after they have been here for a month or two. They might then
> be better able to tell the rest of us what they are interested in
> that they can guess we might also take some interest in. And that
> might lead to a lot more follow-up messages and new conversations.

Again, yes. I'd still wonder, though, if there isn't a way they
could be backgrounded: as this technology develops, for an increasing
number of people it would be pretty simple to click on a link that
would take you to the S-D . . .

(By the way, I wonder whether this discussion would be better
backgrounded, too -- perhaps moved to XORGAN, which Eva reminded me of
this morning. It feels to me like an interruption of, or distraction
from, the wonderful conversation on settings and architecture and
genre . . . )

-- Russ
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