John Richards: Robert, I love you; your sort of cerebral, standoffish ways; your voice all caught up in your throat, avoiding the belly, belly laughs, the guts; your avoidance Vega iota maybe spawned by being on the spectrum maybe; but stop answering questions with more questions! That’s a ruse to control the conversation without adding to it.
If you are going to host these supposed dialogs, then engage in a dialog and cut the patriarchal controlling ask another cutesy question.
Or just have some integrity and STOP these one sided unfeeling games you play with the people who post here.
RF: As a generalisation, the form/manner in which most comments/posts are framed act in such a way to prevent me responding to them. For example, Mr. Richards' comments above.
Similarly, many questions are presented in such a way that they prevent an answer being given: there is a level of assumption within the question which denies an answer. I often respond: What is the question you are trying hard not to ask?
So, how to get past all of this? That's a question for me, not Mr. Richards.
Recently, there have been many good posts on the overall subject of how to engage with an artist that we love. This is also a question for me, as with many of the posters.
I am currently working on a reply, and considering how best to present my views on Audience Engagement to those many posters who have taken an interest in the subject.
For which my gratitude.
Very simply, for this post: there are four qualities of engagement. Each quality of engagement has different strategies of how to engage. I have been intentionally examining/employing different strategies since 1980.
Two of these four qualities have been constantly referenced in the recent posts. The two qualities not referenced are those which are my primary focus, in music and in life. When I do refer to these, there is often a reaction along the lines - this is WooWoo!
Hence my difficulty in finding a form of words that convey my strategies in engaging with "fan" approaches. There is a much easier and direct form of expressing these ideas - consult the music. What touches you in this music? Do you have any idea of what it took to get this music into the world?
Clearly, a longer subject and one I am beginning to address.
