On Sat, May 9, 2020 at 12:00 PM Brad Klee <bradklee@gmail.com> wrote:
Please also notice that I did not say “my poem >> Alan’s”,
You didn't say it explicitly. but it's certainly implied by your actions. After all, would anyone respond to a poem by saying "If you just change a few words here and there, you can come up with a similar, but worse, poem."? Or even "You can change some words in this poem, and it doesn't make it any worse"? The only reason to post a modified version is if you think that in your view, it is better.
because first of all, it is rude to say such a thing, and even then it isn’t provably true.
No-one here thinks that aesthetic judgements are provable like mathematical theorems. You posted your version because you think it has greater aesthetic appeal, and someone else commented that their aesthetic judgement differed from yours. If someone else's stated opinion that they prefer the original is rude, then so is your clearly implied statement of the opposite is equally rude. Andy
-- Andy.Latto@pobox.com