Re: Getting your work critiqued (but by whom?)

"James A. Donald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

> I have little patience with definitions, which tend to
> obstruct, rather than facilitate, discussion about the world.
> All the best definitions are frankly circular, for example
> Euclid's wonderfully question begging definition of a point,.
> Euclid's definition works only because we know what a point is
> by example, usage, and context.

Lack of agree-upon definitions can also obstruct discussion.  If "main
character" means, to one person, "the central character around whom the
story revolves," and "the primary POV character, regardless of his/her
function in the story," then they are going to make quite different comments
about the "main character" of the Sherlock Holmes stories, which are
unlikely to be resolved until they get around to discovering that one of
them is talking about Sherlock Holmes and the other about Dr. Watson.  A
little preliminary discussion of definitions would save a lot of time and
misunderstanding in such an instance.

Patricia C. Wrede