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Disclaimer: This is not a troll. Really, I mean it. You see a troll? I don't see a troll. Righty-o. No troll.
Peeve: As someone who has never gone to Burning Man, one thing that really rankles me about talking to previous Burning Man attendees about their experience there, is that the vast majority of them (as in, practically all of them) end up saying some variation on "It's a Burner thing; you wouldn't understand."
Taken from any other source, I view statements of the form "It's a (adjective) thing..." as so much condescending crap, and I'm likely to come back with an Annoying Snappy Response(tm), the scope and colorfulness of which is left as an exercise for the reader.
In the case of Burners, though, the responses have been so consistent, and so insistent that language could not describe it, that I have to figure one of two things is the case:
1. The playa is actually composed of nanoparticles that inhibit certain very specific synaptic connections within the language center of the human brain.
--or--
2. The experience is so significantly outside the realm of "normal" life, that it would be folly to even attempt to explain it to someone who hasn't been there.
I'm dubious of the former, and slightly skeptical of the latter.
So, to those of you who have attended Burning Man at some point in the past (a few days ago, included), I ask of you the following:
Query: Explain to me why Burning Man is impossible to explain in words to someone who has never gone to it. Failing that, if you're game, tell me something about Burning Man that would not be obvious to a reasonably well-informed non-attendee.
Peeve: As someone who has never gone to Burning Man, one thing that really rankles me about talking to previous Burning Man attendees about their experience there, is that the vast majority of them (as in, practically all of them) end up saying some variation on "It's a Burner thing; you wouldn't understand."
Taken from any other source, I view statements of the form "It's a (adjective) thing..." as so much condescending crap, and I'm likely to come back with an Annoying Snappy Response(tm), the scope and colorfulness of which is left as an exercise for the reader.
In the case of Burners, though, the responses have been so consistent, and so insistent that language could not describe it, that I have to figure one of two things is the case:
1. The playa is actually composed of nanoparticles that inhibit certain very specific synaptic connections within the language center of the human brain.
--or--
2. The experience is so significantly outside the realm of "normal" life, that it would be folly to even attempt to explain it to someone who hasn't been there.
I'm dubious of the former, and slightly skeptical of the latter.
So, to those of you who have attended Burning Man at some point in the past (a few days ago, included), I ask of you the following:
Query: Explain to me why Burning Man is impossible to explain in words to someone who has never gone to it. Failing that, if you're game, tell me something about Burning Man that would not be obvious to a reasonably well-informed non-attendee.
