Posted by seahunt on April 13, 2001 at 14:33:06:
In Reply to: Re: Immortal Diver? posted by tleemay on April 12, 2001 at 21:18:01:
Wow what a lot of words devoted to a monumental achievement of stupidity.
This may be a story that some people requested, but aside from appealing
to a sort of morbid curiosity, the story itself has no redeeming features
unless that the story of the recovery process was scary... Or that there
are divers out there too stupid and dangerous for anyone to buddy with.
Maybe the story of his recovery could scare somebody into being a good
diver and not go past 300 feet after being in a DCS situation.......,
but if they need that scare, they probably oughta not dive
anyway.
There is no mention of deep stops or anything like it in that story. It
wasn't really about accidents, beyond known equipment problems. It was
just about choosing to do one stupid thing after another.
I admit, this is just a personal bias. I could write stories about stupid
people, but stupid people repulse me so I don't. Notice in my last essays,
I mentioned Mike, Kevin's brother, but I said nothing about him, because
there was absolutely nothing good to say. Even he couldn't come to the
quality and degree of your Immortal, but Mike is plenty stupid enough to make
me disgusted that he walks on two legs. Maybe you would enjoy what I
write more or consider it more valuable if it was about stupid people
doing really stupid things. I avoid it.
Say what you like, be as indignant as you want. That story by itself
has no redeeming feature aside from the emotional response it can invoke
in the reader, whether humor or revulsion. There was absolutely nothing
to be learned from the story except perhaps as a recipe for a stupid way
to kill yourself.
It's not about rational or reason. You handle those fine and your
discussion is quite intelligable, especially when you consider what the
topic is. Maybe I'm wrong, but this story seems just as meaningless and
almost repulsive as when someone posts a list of all the divers that
have died in the past 15 years.
You give a long and detailed responce to my critique of that stupid
story, but it will take far more than that to ascribe anything positive
to the story. It's still terminally stupid. I'm never "poo poo"ed what
you said. I said that that story was about such stupidity that it was
embarrassing to read.
The guy is alive, but he totally deserves a Darwin Award for effort
beyond human expectations.
Sure, this critique can be called invalid, because it is the equivelant
of saying "No" as an arguement against something, but when I read
something like that, I am forced to say "NO" in some way. Take it
seriously if you like, but I can't. Sure, it's a good thing to jump on
me for, because my position, this kind of critique, is inherently pretty
indefensible, but that still doesn't change the fact that the story was
just a tale of incomparably stupid actions. Anybody that learned much
from his mistakes in that story should ask themselves if they should be
diving at all. Maybe if I have nothing good to say I should say nothing,
but that story was about something so beyond stupid that I thought it
deserved a comment.
I have tried to give some meaningful responce to your reply, though I
still think you've tried to make a silk purse from a sow's ear, but
when I get to that last paragraph, I have to agree, you do digress a
bit. I really do seem to have found a raw nerve in there somewhere.
Really, I have no interest in picking on you. Of the "DIR crowd", you
seem the most reasonable and are the only one that will actually say
anything decipherable. I've never noticed you refer anyone to what you
have written. (I didn't look much, but I would remember.) I am sure that
what you have written would show more smarts than did Mr Pyle. Why would
you feel that the members of this board community should not see it? If
you think I created my web site out of vanity, it suggests a shallowness
or self absorbtion I never expected of you... also it wouldn't be
anonymous and there probably would be a pic of me in it... As most people
can figure out, my site is a celebration of the diving that so many enjoy.
For every diving horror story you post, you should post at least one story
that is about the good parts of diving. I just never remember you referring
to diving as fun. You always seem to want it to be more complicated than
that.
Enjoy, seahunt