The sinister "Policing Shakespeare Discussion" post I quoted from the
"humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare" Internet newsgroup (in my August 25 letter) stirred one member
of this list to write:
This led to some back and forth which I reproduce here to aid in the
worldwide struggle against mind control:
From: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>
To: Roger@anon.net
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2001 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: [China] Dalhousie Events Spur Mind Control Research
Hi Roger, [name changed to protect the innocent]
I do want to allay your concern as urgently as possible, but there are
so many ways to understand your message. Are you thinking that I do
condone thought policing? (I have consistently stood against this.) Or
by "note you posted" are you referring to the newsgroup post -- thus
suggesting that the author of the post was moi? (And why would I be
researching mind control??)
Since my recent immersion in Shakespeare, much of life has come to seem
multi-faceted, textured, ambiguous, mysterious. But try to express what
you mean to say to me and I will do my best to understand you.
Cheers,
Uriel
From: Roger@anon.net
To: "'Uriel'" <uw@urielw.com>
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2001 2:04 PM
Subject: RE: [China] Dalhousie Events Spur Mind Control Research
Geez Uriel, take off your text analysis glasses for a second ....
I was merely expressing my incredulity as to the origins of the
newsgroup post, hoping against hope that it was satire and not an actual
posting. Or that it was an actual - but satirical - posting.
Roger
From: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>
To: Roger@anon.net
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2001 2:16 PM
Subject: Re: [China] Dalhousie Events Spur Mind Control Research
Why would I be in any better position than you to know the thinking of
the poster? Unless ...
What exactly are you suggesting, anyways?
From: Roger@anon.net
To: "'Uriel'" <uw@urielw.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 9:26 AM
Subject: RE: [China] Dalhousie Events Spur Mind Control Research
Okay, lets start over.
I'm not suggesting, implying or hinting ANYTHING.
There's no reason to believe or suspect that.
I was merely making a simple, sympathetic statement of (perhaps) ironic
disbelief that any legitimate professor could post such a baldly
totalitarian comment in anything but a spirit of satire.
Not everyone is after you all the time.
Roger
From: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>
To: Roger@anon.net
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 2:32 PM
Subject: Re: [China] Dalhousie Events Spur Mind Control Research
Roger,
Once a text is out there, NO ONE owns it. It's not legitimate to
categorically state whether or not the text you produced is "suggesting,
implying or hinting" at something.
But frankly I don't see what you're worried about. Neither of us has
even said openly what it was you were possibly hinting at.
The professor who posted is indeed an unusual bird. But does the only
text by which we know him point to a conclusion that he is fictive? Let
me ask it another way: as a news reporter, are you willing to cede the
bizarreness high ground to craftsmen of the imagination? Is fiction,
after all, stranger than truth?
Regardless of the professor's "reality" (I use quotation marks since, in
any case, he is a character possessing authenticity as a producer of
texts), I have difficulty relating to your "sympathetic" feelings. I
think at this stage in world history most people understand that
totalitarianism is seriously undesirable, although I agree it could be
an effective antidote to some modern ills.
From: Roger@anon.net
To: "'Uriel'" <uw@urielw.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 3:22 PM
Subject: RE: [China] Dalhousie Events Spur Mind Control Research
Uriel,
I wonder if there is a server somewhere that is transposing letters or
scrambling sentences of our messages - and then re-assembling them on
the reply so neither is the wiser, but simple direct communication is
impossible.
It was YOU I was sympathizing with, not the newsgroup posting author or
totalitarianism.
You do understand, don't you, that my message simply expressed some
astonishment that anyone could write such a posting in all seriousness.
That's all.
Tell me you understood that.