Post
by bobalou » Tue Oct 02, 2007 1:18 pm
Whew! It's taken me about a week to get through this topic. And at that, I've only skimmed some of the longer posts, while reading most of the shorter ones. I answered the poll before I read them, and my opinion has not changed. I'm one of those who said it's sort of OK.
I'm not opposed to themes really, I just don't get into them all that much. Especially pirates and space ships and stuff. Except, I DID embrace this years theme, and was a bit surprised at how many people who did embrace it actually got it. i.e., not as many leprechauns as I expected.
So...here we have a poll in which 288 people, out of 4,000 eplaya members have voted. And how many burners are there? Probably a couple of hundred thousand people who claim that moniker. Not all go every year, and looks like 2008 will not be an exception.
There have been 439 posts on this thread, and it looks like most of them come from maybe a dozen people. Over 11,000 have "viewed" this discussion. Presumably, most of them didn't get sucked into the arguments here, and moved on.
For the most part, it's an interesting discussion. A lot of good thoughts on why people like it or not, and how they plan to incorporate this theme into their art work. And quite a few, "I'm gonna take my football and go home" posts as well.
The thing I've found to be annoying is the assumption on the part of some posters that there is some kind of group consensus amongst burners, that this years theme is completely unacceptable. I'd rather think that the statistics I've quoted here, show that this thread, and it's accompanying poll, only represents a handful of burners. Most of the people I've talked to outside eplaya don't seem to care much one way or the other about it, although I do know one who says they won't go.
If only 239 people voted in this poll, and 11,000 looked at it and didn't take the time to vote, I'd think that shows massive disinterest.
Also, while I found an answer in the poll that pretty much expresses the way I feel, there really should have been more choices. Like, "I don't really pay attention to themes". And the "lame, lame, lame" choice should have rather said something more like, "I extremely dislike this theme." Calling it lame says to me more like, "This theme doesn't say anything." The most vocal objections here are not because it's lame, but because they feel it profoundly expresses an idea that they don't like.
But it HAS sparked a lot of interesting discussion, about the theme itself, and about Burning Man in general, and I think that's a good thing.
Enough rambling. I'm going again in 2008. I expect I'll see a lot of interesting interpertations of the theme. And I expect I'll see lots of monkeys.
Bobalou,
"My first burn was the best one, and they've gotten better ever since."
You mean you want to get a breast job like that, rebbi?!?
Sorry, I got distracted by... somethings! Take a Havidol http://www.havidol.com/ and get yer smile back.
