Re: virus: barnowl@rain.org: Memetics debates

zaimoni@ksu.edu
Sun, 3 Nov 1996 16:50:01 -0600 (CST)


On Tue, 29 Oct 1996, Kevin M O'Connor wrote:

[CLIP]

> On an unrelated note:
>
> My name is Kevin Michael O'Connor. This is not a secret. I do send all
> of my e-mail and publish all of my comics under the name KMO, but I'm not
> particularly concerned with concealing my identity. One advantage to
> using KMO rather than my full name is that people tend to spell my family
> name "O'Conner" rather than "O'Connor." I have yet to see anyone mispell
> KMO. When I was publishing C, a comic strip, twice weekly in a
> university newspaper under the name KMO, I got a fair amount of hostile
> feedback. Those of you who have read the Collected Infection can
> probably guess the general nature of the complaints I received. I
> noticed that many of the most vehement criticisms were addressed to Kevin
> O'Connor. My name was frequently in all caps and punctuated with
> multiple explanation marks. I got the impression the authors of these
> criticisms felt they gained some advantage over me by discovering and
> using my name. I'm not sure what that advantage might be. Can anyone
> shed some light on this behavior?
>
> Take care. -KMO

I think many of these critics would be horrified by this estimate:

[would I be too far off if I presumed a significant percentage of
right-wing fundamentalists whose only point in reading C was to *be*
offended? (In their reference frame, seeking out being offended should be
an instance of deliberately 'sinning'.)]

D. Leeper probably could cross-verify this more clearly:

A number of magical pseudodisciplines [pending adequate verification
attempts in the style suggested by Noctem or Atkins, I don't recall which
this instant....] require knowing the target's name for a number of
effects, either beneficial or baneful.

Now, how many of my presumed specialization would have instant emotional
overload if someone they were on good terms with even HINTED that they
were attempting 'sorcery', subform 'cursing'?

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/ Kenneth Boyd
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