tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5096884235079668296.post4527274700986787219..comments2023-10-08T11:12:33.841+03:00Comments on Excursions in words and occasional photographs...: Static - for a whileJohn Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06269579852499589966noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5096884235079668296.post-19887050518349726452011-11-02T16:32:45.933+02:002011-11-02T16:32:45.933+02:00Thank you Claude. Do not be too concerned about a...Thank you Claude. Do not be too concerned about adverse comments, they can be inspirational! I have known Barry for long enough to be aware of any foibles he might have and it will take rather more than his critical comments on any of my largely inconsequential blog posts to lessen the love and respect I have for the man.John Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06269579852499589966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5096884235079668296.post-1792878726645888082011-10-30T01:49:15.381+02:002011-10-30T01:49:15.381+02:00This comment has been removed by the author.Claudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06775039539331403794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5096884235079668296.post-9924219584256540722011-10-06T03:11:57.934+02:002011-10-06T03:11:57.934+02:00And cattle on a beach? Surely very unusual.And cattle on a beach? Surely very unusual.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5096884235079668296.post-4464399848794521452011-10-06T01:25:25.731+02:002011-10-06T01:25:25.731+02:00Interesting... The post and indeed the comments. T...Interesting... The post and indeed the comments. They make me want to ask things but I think I will desist. They certainly make me want to read on, and I will. We are all alone for all our lives John, I agree, as islands, but with little fragile and temporary bridges available to exchange some partial thoughts. I am glad you have allowed a few partial thoughts to cross to me on such a bridge.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5096884235079668296.post-56344596319066590652011-10-03T01:33:32.656+02:002011-10-03T01:33:32.656+02:00Ahem. It takes Barry Williamson Esq. many words to...Ahem. It takes Barry Williamson Esq. many words to utter that – except of him – most if not all bloggers are [expletive deleted].<br />As Karl Popper might have thought with a sigh:<br />To attack a man for talking nonsense is like finding your mortal enemy drowning in a swamp and jumping in after him with a knife.<br /><br />Having written above lines and by doing so proving (?) to be impolite, arrogant, nitpicking and unpleasant a contemporary, I am a writer, by the way. May be not good a writer, but anyway, a writer.<br /><br />And now, with a big smile: Enjoy each moment, John. Just do it.Sean Jeatinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08978285783271305489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5096884235079668296.post-72508738458490907222011-10-02T21:52:31.362+02:002011-10-02T21:52:31.362+02:00Thank you for your comment which has much to say t...Thank you for your comment which has much to say that is both valid and illuminating.<br />If I have understood you correctly, a dangerous assumption perhaps, you are critical of my writing in the first person singular. My argument against your criticism, with no disrespect intended to Elisabeth, is that I do live and travel alone. Furthermore I believe<br />that, notwithstanding pleasant companionship along the way, from the beginning to the end of their life journey all humankind are essentially continually alone. Until it can be reasonably proved to me that there can be such a thing as synchronized and mutually communicative, interchangeable minds, I shall continue to believe in this state of aloneness.<br /><br />You write of a blog being a public arena. Inasmuch as the material is available for anyone with an internet connection to find and read I can but agree with you that it is, but no one is obliged to do so. I<br />do not advertise my blog address. I have no cause to. To only family and a few close friends who have asked for it has my blog address been passed directly by me. I have no idea how other folk who have visited, and in some cases left comments, came to read my posts. I enjoy, of course, those comments that suggest the commenter has taken<br />some pleasure from my post but I also enjoy critical comments that may help me to write better and more interesting material. <br />And so to the inappropriate, in my case, if familiar paragraph in your e-mail; the one you used almost verbatim in your e-mail to the dog woman. It is inappropriate because I have never knowingly claimed to be a writer and agree wholeheartedly with your belief that no one who has not been published in a recognized form has the right to take on<br />the title. Oh, and by the way, I do not remember having claimed to be in any way ‘blocked’!<br /><br />Finally, there is perhaps a grain of truth in your closing paragraph but what does it matter? I believe that anything any individual does that can be construed as creative will say something about them.<br />‘Publish and be damned’, an excellent phrase coined apparently by the Duke of Wellington, still holds good enough for me.John Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06269579852499589966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5096884235079668296.post-31537966053139576712011-10-02T16:18:06.273+02:002011-10-02T16:18:06.273+02:00Varberg
Sweden
John
Throughout your blog, includ...Varberg<br />Sweden<br /><br />John<br /><br />Throughout your blog, including the account of your recent hurried translation to Ireland, you write in the first person singular. Indeed, in a recent paragraph of average size, you use the personal pronoun ‘ I’ nine times. Apart from being somewhat repetitive, this gives rise to the impression that you live and travel alone.<br /><br />However, you do have a partner, your companion in life, and not least she is with you in your current search to discover what it is you are searching for, in Ireland.<br /><br />Perhaps the beginning of the process of becoming more open whilst being more introspective might lie in greater honesty. You may well need to confront the truth of who you are, how you live and what you wish for yourself in your remaining years. You might also begin to understand your need to create a mythical world in which you do not live, and why you do so in such a public arena as a blog.<br /><br />There is also a problem with calling yourself a writer, albeit a writer with a block. Other people may call you a writer, if that is their opinion. It is a different matter to claim the title for yourself. Can you be a writer if you have no track record of recognised or published writing and with no access to informed criticism?<br /><br />By definition, writers write best when not blocked. What interest can there be for others in essays about being blocked, when blocked?<br /><br />One of several problems of ‘blogging’ is that it too easily gives the ‘blogger’ a false notion of their own ability to write, photograph, draw or paint. It is far too easy to present to the world a false persona. Where are the teachers, the tutors, the examiners, the critics? The whole blogging atmosphere is one of condoned, and shared, amateur ignorance, coupled with naive philosophy, non-contextualised quotes and attempts at stereotyped travel writing and photography.Barry Williamsonnoreply@blogger.com