I can only explain how I feel about it.

Which doesn't preclude it being analysis.

I think the feedback I gave Allyson on the second essay I wrote counted as analysis, but it was me trying to extrapolate my POV.

Now, she's more than welcome to go mano a mano with me, but in the end there's something irrefutable I have to offer -- I'm not her. What you mean when you write/paint/dance/sing is important, but the minute it travels beyond your space, and you care about the responses, the not-you is also important.

Mine isn't the one true answer, but/because there's only so much that any one person can see.

It's possible I misunderstood, but I don't particularly care for being told I'm being arrogant by having a preference for what I find useful in discussing writing either as a writer or a reader. And that is the impression I got from what I read.

It reads to me like the dispute here is not about one having a preference, but rather more about what one thinks others should do or not do. It seems to me if you find analysis useful or enjoyable or not, you can seek it out or do it or not, without hurting anyone who feels differently.

I mean, right?

And, FTR, Deb, you do have a great deal of worth here and elsewhere.

No monkey grooming. I'm really sad that you're unsubbed, though I certainly understand doing so.

With no disrespect meant to anyone who is still here your contributions on this thread have meant the most to me.

It reads to me like the dispute here is not about one having a preference, but rather more about what one thinks others should do or not do. It seems to me if you find analysis useful or enjoyable or not, you can seek it out or do it or not, without hurting anyone who feels differently.

I mean, right?

I'd think so, certainly. I also think it's useful to realize that others can read the exact same thing and come to a differing conclusion without denigrating ones own conclusion or style.

That is a clumsy sentence structure, but I'm going to have to leave it as I'm due elsewhere shortly.

I also think it's useful to realize that others can read the exact same thing and come to a differing conclusion without denigrating ones own conclusion or style.

This, exactly.

Susan, I think "cock" is the term to use in this case. But you're right about Jack perhaps not knowing correct anatomical terms -- I know one author who got around it by having her rather over-sexed heroes interested in erotic texts from different cultures, so they all knew not only the correct English words, but the India and Chinese ones, as well. (Which got a bit boring and too lesson-like, in my humble opinion.)

Jack probably wouldn't know the term "clitoris," but if you could figure out a reason he would... Or what about "quim"? That's a Shakespearean-era one, I think, and it never stung the way some of the others do, at least to my ear.

Also, I'm going to respond to your email hopefully later tonight, when there are fewer children awake and less general chaos.

Maybe I read the conversation wrong, Astarte, but what I read was a conversation about differing responses to work. Some folks like analysis and some don't. That's cool. Nutty got heated (once again, this is just my take on it and I could be way off base here) because she felt that analysis (and those who practice it) was being put down as cold and arrogant and, well, whether you tend to analyze or not (I am more in your and Deb's camp, myself although I have enjoyed some Litcrit classes very much in the past) we have a lot of wonderful people who that very thing for a living, and it felt TO ME as if they and what they do was being put down. When several folks, me included, said bad teachers CAN make analyzing horrible and the experience of being lectured a pure hell on earth, but that good ones can make it an exciting experience, no one even seemed to admit there COULD be good lit professors. That feels like a put-down to me--a put down of many of my favorite folk in the world, as a matter of fact. I don't for a moment think Deb or you meant it that way--but that's how it felt.

And, Deb, if you feel as if you speak a different language, I think that's exactly WHY you belong here. The more varied views of the world we are lucky enough to share, the richer the conversation. Everyone on this thread is unique and articulate and the loss of even one voice is a loss to everyone.

I know one author who got around it by having her rather over-sexed heroes interested in erotic texts from different cultures, so they all knew not only the correct English words, but the India and Chinese ones, as well.

Heh. I've established Jack as a self-educated man who'll read whatever he can get his hands on whenever he has the chance, and that he's on friendly terms with at least one officer in his regiment who loans him books. So I suppose I could just have Captain So-and-So purchase a copy of the Kama Sutra from a shabby bookstall in Lisbon....

Or not. Though I've got to say I'm loving the mental image of a bunch of horny, lonely Riflemen paging through such a work.

Also:

Also, I'm going to respond to your email hopefully later tonight, when there are fewer children awake and less general chaos.

Cool! I'll be looking forward to it.

loving the mental image of a bunch of horny, lonely Riflemen paging through such a work.

Oooh-h-h. He would be much more enlightened in the skills of lovemaking than his rough exterior and background would suggest, also.... ...Methinks my heart just did a little pittypat, there.