On the Role of Words.

You know, the written word really does have its limitations. However much care a writer puts into the words so as to convey the bare meaning unequivocally, a reader still needs to hear – actually or instinctively – the inflections in his or her voice, otherwise the sense in which the meaning is couched can so easily be missed. This is especially true of people divided by a common language. I suspect there are quite a few Americans who imagine me to be very old, sour as an unripe lemon, and not terribly good at writing English. (Comments disabled on this post.)

And on that subject, I really need to alter my approach when replying to Criticism-by-Idiot on YouTube. I should confine my replies to honest and reasoned defence, whereas I so easily fall prey to the instinct for counter-attack. I have few notable skills, but one I do seem to have is knowing how to sting sharply with the written word. Such a practice tends to hurt people’s feelings, and to one of my ethical aspirations, that probably isn’t good. I shouldn’t be in the business of hurting people’s feelings. Defence is acceptable, but counter-attack is maybe dubious.