Depressed for Time

On Sun, 19 Mar 1995 23:34:04
Alan Sondheim wrote:

> Is some of what we call madness primarily a violation of etiquette. > We can't predict what comes next (whether they will break the big rules)
Not sure about madness, but certainly depression is attacked because it breaks with etiquette, "everyone" knows you're unhappy.

Date: Sun, 9 Apr 95 01:12:19
From: "Rose Mulvale"
To: Alan
Subject: old, old stuff
Alan,
In physical reality, depression (esp. reactive, and milder endogenous) can be hidden (or goes unrecognized by all but those nearest the victim).
"Sadness" is a signal, IPR .....
(Um, also cyberside, once thought into.. [some *quite* cheerful posters reveal deep wounds when quietly questioned.])

Date: Sun, 9 Apr 1995 01:06:49
From: Alan Sondheim
To: Rose Mulvale
Subject: Re: old, old stuff Yes, it's amazing to me how many people here are suffering from depression and I really think it's a condition of the country at large, a postmodern condition, something like that. But then there's so little reaching out in spite of everything... >

Notes

Certainly some systematic violations of etiquette have been called madness, because the alternative -- that there is a reason to deviate from the norm -- was unthinkable. In modernity, "norms" conceded some ground, to the extent that one could suspect one's own standards when viewing, say, a bunch of grungy teens -- are their clothes and hair and speech intentionally identical, or is my perception of identicality gross and out of date? Is every generality a "fashion"? If this language is based on generalizability of meaning, have we eradicated the word-value of fashion (related to fasten: latch onto), and thus the word itself? This is the post-modern 'poseur,' in a (one-off) nutshell.

'Unrecognized by all but those nearest the victim,' 'amazing to me how many people here are suffering'... To be near is to know their 'habits'; i.e. what their behavior was before. What does that mean in c-space, where personae wink in and out, equally beforeless and afterless?

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