[ecbritz]

I regularly take a vow never to return to this particular thread. But unfortunately the exchanges here are too interesting to give them a miss. Sorry about that.

Ms Hitch, you are a feast. But it's a pity you can't laugh at yourself as well. Then again, those that laugh at themselves and at the world don't have your can-do powers. I suppose that a force to be reckoned with, has no use for a sense of humour, and would be weakened by it.

I need to tweak my theory about parasitism in the light of what Ms Hitsch has written about herself.

This theory is not my own but I read about it in an article on the French school of deconstructivism. The article "rewrites" the concept of parasitism, thus demonstrating deconstruction.

Normally the word "parasite" carries a strongly negative moral meaning. But shocking as this might be, you can think of for instance a baby as a perfect example of a parasite. The mother also "feeds off" the baby in a physical, psychological and even spiritual sense. While the baby fills itself with mother's milk, the mother "fulfils" herself in having and nurturing the baby.

Another shocking example is a couple of lovers working up to an orgasm. In orgasm, I read, a person actually forgets for a few seconds about the other person completely. The rupture is experienced entirely within the self. So the give-and-take of lovemaking might seem like a kind of altruism, a passionate "sharing". But at its peak its actually the epitome of parasitism.

How Ms Hitch and the Sigil Forum fits into this deconstructivist mode of thinking I'm not sure anymore. But there is some kind of deal akin to my two examples being played out here. "I tolerate your voice, your public indulgence in your own opinions. You tolerate my advertisements", MobileRead might say. But this is not doing the deal justice, especially when the newbie-member, the beginner in search of enlightenment, is taken into account. "You learn all about Sigil (I hope). But in return you also glance over my adverts -- so I can put bread on my table." Note how the whole deal picks up moral rectitude when the service provided to beginners is taken into account.

I've just read at Wikipedia that parasitism is actually "a non-mutual relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host". There goes my story about the mother/baby and lover+lover relationships. Then again, Wikipedia is an amateur encyclopaedia. It does not provide the kind of profound insights that French philosophers do.

Well, I'm ready for the daily rantings, bring it on. Perhaps we are in a process of learning WHAT to say using Sigil, not only HOW to say it by coding HTML.

Be that all as it may, I take my hat off to Ms. Hitch.