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Dec. 6th, 2005 01:25 pmYou know, I thought about doing the Intimidation Meme -- I did go and bum around there, and posted to one person who then proceeded to laugh at the idea, which was somewhat heartening, actually....
But I don't know, these en-masse memes like Snaps Cup and the Brutal Honesty meme, there's always something vaguely offputting about them, to me. I don't look down on other people for doing them, but I don't really like the idea of them, somehow. They show us how others view us, and there's rarely an altruistic motive to asking that question, whether the answer is positive or negative.
Of course, for obvious reasons doing them myself would be faintly disastrous. I'm still not sure if I would, though, even if I didn't have the vast and frightening readership that I do have. Part of the way this journal works, at least for me, is as a magnifying glass to the way people interact. If it's about ego when a BNF does it, it can't not be about ego when anyone else does it. Because we're all just people and, outside of LiveJournal, it's not as though I get accosted for autographs on the street.
I sort of look on the last two big memes as a trade off, in fact; I hadn't done the Snaps Cup, so I wasn't required to do the Brutal Honesty. For me, the intimidation meme falls on the side of Snaps; nobody wants to be intimidating, of course, but it's interesting and sometimes pleasing to see that we can be, that we're admired in an odd sort of way. I was terribly flattered when I found out that a young man in my English class in high school didn't want to be in my assigned study group because he was scared of my intellect. I was sad about it, because he was quite interesting and fun to talk to, and he'd never given any sign that I frightened him, but it was still nice to know that he thought so highly of me.
I suppose I'm thinking about it mainly because Rainette and I were discussing the meme's themes -- who intimidates us and who we suspect we intimidate and why. There are people on my flist and certainly out there in the web who intimidate me, and she pointed out that it's probably good to say that -- it's a good reminder that anyone can be seen as intimidating and anyone can be intimidated by others. I won't name names in LJland because ugh, there's a can of worms ready to explode, but certainly there are a few.
People who are intelligent, witty, creative, sensible, thoughtful, kinder than I, at a different stage in their lives; people who have the jobs they love, who have spouses that love them, people who do interesting things I could never do through shyness or cowardice or what have you. I wonder how they got where they are, what kind of wonderful things they must think and do, and I get terribly intimidated by them. It's an incredibly unfair proposition, particularly to them, but et in arcadia -- everyone feels that way sometimes.
So yeah -- there's my take.
But I don't know, these en-masse memes like Snaps Cup and the Brutal Honesty meme, there's always something vaguely offputting about them, to me. I don't look down on other people for doing them, but I don't really like the idea of them, somehow. They show us how others view us, and there's rarely an altruistic motive to asking that question, whether the answer is positive or negative.
Of course, for obvious reasons doing them myself would be faintly disastrous. I'm still not sure if I would, though, even if I didn't have the vast and frightening readership that I do have. Part of the way this journal works, at least for me, is as a magnifying glass to the way people interact. If it's about ego when a BNF does it, it can't not be about ego when anyone else does it. Because we're all just people and, outside of LiveJournal, it's not as though I get accosted for autographs on the street.
I sort of look on the last two big memes as a trade off, in fact; I hadn't done the Snaps Cup, so I wasn't required to do the Brutal Honesty. For me, the intimidation meme falls on the side of Snaps; nobody wants to be intimidating, of course, but it's interesting and sometimes pleasing to see that we can be, that we're admired in an odd sort of way. I was terribly flattered when I found out that a young man in my English class in high school didn't want to be in my assigned study group because he was scared of my intellect. I was sad about it, because he was quite interesting and fun to talk to, and he'd never given any sign that I frightened him, but it was still nice to know that he thought so highly of me.
I suppose I'm thinking about it mainly because Rainette and I were discussing the meme's themes -- who intimidates us and who we suspect we intimidate and why. There are people on my flist and certainly out there in the web who intimidate me, and she pointed out that it's probably good to say that -- it's a good reminder that anyone can be seen as intimidating and anyone can be intimidated by others. I won't name names in LJland because ugh, there's a can of worms ready to explode, but certainly there are a few.
People who are intelligent, witty, creative, sensible, thoughtful, kinder than I, at a different stage in their lives; people who have the jobs they love, who have spouses that love them, people who do interesting things I could never do through shyness or cowardice or what have you. I wonder how they got where they are, what kind of wonderful things they must think and do, and I get terribly intimidated by them. It's an incredibly unfair proposition, particularly to them, but et in arcadia -- everyone feels that way sometimes.
So yeah -- there's my take.
