So, it's actually relevant to the topic to point this out: Once you meet Zed Shaw you will realize that he may have been trying to write like he talks. It just didn't work very well. Zed Shaw in person is a hilarious, charismatic trash-talking New Yorker who is also an intense hacker genius. If you understand both New York-style trash talk [1] and intense hacker geniuses, you will understand Zed Shaw. He seemed like a nice guy, the couple of times I met him.
But the trash-talking aspect of his personality doesn't translate well to a text-only online persona. The body language and expression and tone and intensity and back-and-forth are all lost, as is the context: He can't tune his approach to his audience, because he doesn't have any feedback.
He seems to have figured that out now and is making a deliberate attempt to change his online persona.
One big problem with the internet is that you must develop a completely different online voice from your offline voice if you don't want your words to be taken the wrong way. Your work online is decontextualized in a way that your own words are not.
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[1] Try to remember that when an East Coast working-class person says fuck you they very likely mean "have a nice day". Though it depends on the delivery.
But the trash-talking aspect of his personality doesn't translate well to a text-only online persona. The body language and expression and tone and intensity and back-and-forth are all lost, as is the context: He can't tune his approach to his audience, because he doesn't have any feedback.
He seems to have figured that out now and is making a deliberate attempt to change his online persona.
One big problem with the internet is that you must develop a completely different online voice from your offline voice if you don't want your words to be taken the wrong way. Your work online is decontextualized in a way that your own words are not.
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[1] Try to remember that when an East Coast working-class person says fuck you they very likely mean "have a nice day". Though it depends on the delivery.