Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site reed.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxb!mhuxn!mhuxm!mhuxj!houxm!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!tektronix!reed!wab
From: wab@reed.UUCP (William Baker)
Newsgroups: net.theater
Subject: Re: Re: New Play:  Knots
Message-ID: <934@reed.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 01:50:39 EST
Article-I.D.: reed.934
Posted: Wed Feb 13 01:50:39 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Feb-85 03:58:46 EST
References: <896@reed.UUCP> <2323@nsc.UUCP>
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 61

> In article <896@reed.UUCP> wab@reed.UUCP (William Baker) writes:
> >
> >	Well, this is the second time I have
> >posted an article wondering what happened to
> >all those copies of Knot that I sent out a
> >couple of months ago.
> >
> >Maybe this should be telling me something.
> 
> I haven't read Knot(s), so I can't say anything specifically about it,
> but recently I attended one of the Playworks series at the Berkeley
> Repertory Theatre.  These are plays under development, semi-staged by
> real actors and watched by about 50 people.  A discussion follows.
> 
> The play we saw was an allegory about the Japanese internment during
> WW II.  A young Japanese man who identifies with Godzilla has a
> love/hate relationship with his weird white landlady.  I found it
> mysogonistic, shallow, and almost totally without merit, and I'm sure
> many of the others watching it felt the same way.  Nonetheless, in the
> discussion that followed, it was discussed as though it had been a
> serious work.  Comments focused on technical or structural points, and
> no one even hinted that they thought it was junk.
> 
> This a long way of getting around to saying that perhaps the inhabitants
> of USENET are too polite to say anything negative about anyone else's
> creative efforts { :-) }.
> 
> Getting back to Knots, perhaps the 
> -- 
> Richard Mateosian
> {allegra,cbosgd,decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!srm    nsc!srm@decwrl.ARPA



	Boy, when they start comparing your work to Godzilla drama, it's
time to give up the ship.  Maybe I should go into advertising...
	A more temperamental artist might be irked at the above,
but I'm willing to believe that Mr. Mateosian's symbology is
sincere.  However, the suggestion that readers of my play are
universally aghast and wish to have nothing to do with the kind of
twisted junkie who writes such trash is, perhaps, not valid.  I
have said time and again that I don't care if you think 
Knot is suitable only for wrapping fish.  What I want to know is
why you think so.  Believe me, I have had my baptism of fire
already.
	An update:  My last posting garnered about ten more
requests for copies of the third act and *no* replies from previous
receivers.  Am I kidding myself?  Is Knot so bad that reading it
can kill you on the spot?  Somehow I doubt this.  One gentleman
asked why I didn't just mail these people a plea for an answer.  To
be truthful, I removed the old requests so that 
I don't have a record anymore.  The real reason, 
though, is to shame someone into replying.  Hey, I think this
newsgroup is a great idea; why don't we make it happen for real.


					Bill Baker
					tektronix!reed!wab