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BLANKING_THE_CANVAS

                                                     June 2, 2006

So, I was hanging around in Vesuvio in North
Beach, talking to a young woman about something
or other (bohemian history, no doubt).


In passing, she indicated that she
tended to take the line that

   "appearance doesn't matter".

I.e. who cares about fashion, why
worry about dressing weird, when what
counts is what goes on inside your head?


This is a very sensible,
no-nonsense position,
but I don't think it
holds up very well.


   If she dyed her hair green
   she would very quickly find
   that it changed the way
   people related to her.

   Some people would immediately
   give her credit as a creative
   genius.

   Some people would leap to blame
   her for any screw-up ("what do          These two sets
   you expect from a flake like            of people might
   that?").                                have some overlap.


      In the face of this
      it's hard to say that
      "appearence doesn't
      matter".

      Clearly it matters
      to a lot of people.        (I doubt anyone would
                                 ever bother to say
                                 "appearence doesn't
        It's possible to         matter" if it were really
        argue that               true.)
        "appearence
        *shouldn't*
        matter"...

        But why shouldn't it?

          Why abandon a channel
          of communication?

               Why waste a canvas?


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