It’s Blog! (It’s Great for a Snack, It Fits on Your Back)*
June 13th, 2006
*Apologies to readers either too young or too old to recognize Ren and Stimpy’s “Log” song.
Imagine my joy today when I saw that Alan Jacobs—skilled essayist, fellow Shetland Sheepdog fan, and all-around delightful person—has just published an essay on the topic of blogs in Books and Culture.
Jacobs relates his own experience reading in the blogosphere, with its attendant thrills and frustrations. The main feature defining blogs, he argues, is their immediacy: they present ideas and news items quickly and then move on. Therefore, he concludes, “Blogs remain great for news: political, technological, artistic, whatever. And they provide a very rich environment in which news (or rather “news”) can be tested and evaluated and revised. . . .But as vehicles for the development of ideas they are woefully deficient and will necessarily remain so unless they develop an architecture that is less bound by the demands of urgency—or unless more smart people refuse the dominant architecture.”
Now, I’m still learning the architecture of the blog genre. Porpoise is continually pointing out that the length of my posts exceeds that of most bloggers’ posts—and I might conclude that my blog readers are an unusual breed, too, since some of you (Ahem, Pop Otter. Ahem, Possum.) write responses even longer than my original posts. In my case, I certainly won’t equate length with depth of idea development. But I have to say that, for me, relative brevity and urgency are the two most appealing differences about blog-writing, as compared to any other kind of writing I do. I have an immediate audience who immediately responds, so I feel like my writing actually impacts people, albeit in miniscule ways. Furthermore, I get to express half-baked ideas that would never make it to paper if I had to back them up with extensive proofs and examples. The evidence may be out there, but if I had to find it, I would lose motivation.
But, on the flip side, I do feel the time pressure Jacobs mentions. What if I only see a movie after everyone else has finished talking about it? It’s as if relevance suddenly has an expiration date.
However, expiration date or not, I enjoy my blog snacks (reading as well as writing). They’re not full meals, but, as I think Jacobs would agree, they fill an important function in the contemporary exchange of information. As Porpoise knows, I like my meals, but I can get awfully grumpy if I have to wait too long in between them. Thus, the instant gratification of snacks.
But I’ll be very happy when I get to feast on the next volume of Jacobs’ essays (If you haven’t read his latest collection, Shaming the Devil, shame on you. Get thee to a library.)
P.S. I should also mention that my blogging experience has been unusually positive so far mostly because I have a small cadre of intelligent, informed, and courteous (if argumentative) readers. I’ve only had one “troll” since I began The Ottery, and since this troll was trying to argue that he was the Messiah (I’m not kidding), I could pretty easily dismiss him.
Entry Filed under: Books, Uncategorized
4 Comments Add your own
1. Jillian | June 14th, 2006 at 7:15 am
Professional blogging is a curious thing to me…
Moreover I absolutely dislike the word blog. Which is probably why I keep my personal rotation on LiveJournal.. .where I can call it my journal. Although, prior to my LJ account, I had another misc on-line journal and what would have been a ‘blog’…
I’m on LJ because I’ve journaled nearly daily since I was fifteen. I’ve piles of books and books with various stages of my handwriting scrawled on every page. Then in 2001-2002 I transfered a form of that onto the internet. The public format changed the structure and internalized focus of how I wrote and who I wrote to, but not what I wrote (work, church, boys, movies, books etc).
When I think of ‘blogs’ I tend to think of LJ, Xanga, myspace, a scattering of other specialized blogs, and a few news blogs that I keep reading. (In fact, my sole source of news is the internet since I get zero television stations in my apartment.) Also in that order (okay with the exception of myspace which should be first I guess) I see a higher emphasis on community and then as one goes down the list the amount of conversation and intimacy also decreases.
Unless, (and I haven’t read your article), the literary academic elite are trying to make their own, unique splash on-line. I suppose I’ve been oblivious and wonder when the ripples going to hit other sides of the internet pool…
The most popular and “elite” journal (??blog! I mean blog…) that I visit (besides this one) is Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s LJ. When he was still writing for LOST his replies from readers would go on for pages and pages. PAD’s blog is one I visit less frequently–for, ah, future X-Factor comics insight. Both of those gentlemen are quite the online fanservice and approachable in their larger opinions and creative/media insights.
Although, if more grownups could break into the blogging scene that would be fantastic. Seriously, there are so many kids waxing away in this medium and I have access to them. It’s a highly untapped
mission fieldopportunity to educate! *grins*2. theotter | June 14th, 2006 at 7:36 am
So . . . why don’t you like the word “blog”? Develop your idea, dearie! *grins cheekily*
Seriously, I am curious, especially since I’m fairly new to this whole thing.
You might be interested in reading the paragraph in which Jacobs compares blogs to Samuel Pepys’s 17th-century diary. You can even read the original Pepys diary in rss feed now!
I wonder if the difference in type of blogs/journals has to do with the personalities of the writers. More concrete people write about “this is what I did today,” while more abstract people write about “this is what I thought today.” Of course, since most of us are some mixture of abstract and concrete (in different proportions), we write about both to some degree.
I guess I mainly read blogs for three different purposes: (1) staying current with the news (mostly entertainment news), (2) reading a writer whose tone or insights I really like, or (3) knowing what’s going on in my friends’ lives.
I read Jillian’s LiveJournal for all three reasons! Plus, she has pictures of the new, adorable Doctor Who (Number Ten).
3. Jillian | June 14th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
I don’t like the word
blogbecause it’s a yucky word to pronounce, first off. Secondly, I don’t like the word because of how it’s thrown around casually by the news media like it’s something hip and cool that they’ve caught on to… sort of like generations trying to speak each other’s expired lingo or an American’s putting together a half-developed British vocabulary and missing the point.Now, I understand what the word means and I don’t think it’s being misused… but I’d much rather hear, “myspace” or “Xanga” or “LJ” or “Word Press” rather than blog. Blog is those like “kleenex” is to tissues.
Plus it’s in my personality to go to independent coffee shops rather than Starbucks. I’m arbitrarily label prejudiced.
Another reason why I like to distinguish between the type of blogging is because the very atmosphere of the site can change the style/tone/purpose/benefit of the online communicating. A specific site has a different flavor–myspace suffers from overpopulation due to name recognition, is a cluttered nightmare of people not unlike a grinding disco at the height of the evening and just as chaotic–with the multitude of communication options, people trying to ‘pick up’ other people, an overwhelming population of talentless layouts and poorly chosen images and very low intellectual content. Although, myspace is a fairly decent place for musicians to network and get their music played.
Xanga is a bit more isolated in presentation. More of the posters are reflective putting out thoughts and ideas and opinions to a selective audience. Xanga doesn’t provide much in the way of meeting new people so far as I’ve seen. I believe Xanga might actually collect the interest of more of our male peers.
Live Journal, my base of operations by choice… I like it because I think the layout options and varieties are more flexible to the personality of the poster and easier to adjust. I like that I can keep a personal journal, I have a special page that collects a constant stream of all the journal entries of my ‘friends’ (or other LJs that I like to read), I can participate in specialized communities that focus in on my interests, AND I can search for and meet new people based on my interests. I’ve actually made several good and close friends from being on LJ. LJ probably is more girls that guys–but there is a large international involvement as well. My sister has become chummy with a group of women from the UK.
News Blogs: these are… well, informative. They feel like reading what might have otherwise been scripted for a television feed. Usually the reader (ah! notice here they are readers, not friends) has some avenue by which they can respond–but it’s not guaranteed to be a reciprocal dialogue. I do like the personal nature of Steve Harrigan’s blog or Anderson Cooper’s blog… but again, I’m an audience member getting to peek into a first person narrative.
You mentioned blogging and personalities, and I think that people of a certain personality type are probably going to gravitate to a different internet site or style that matches their personality–yes. I had to open a myspace so that I could better communicate with the high school girls in my Bible study. I had to meet them where they were–and the average high schooler is going to know about myspace and impact what myspace looks like/has as content.
Now your, ah, blog… has a rather unique feel. Because you, 1) draw from topics like a news blog 2) write with a personal approach not unlike LJ with 3) a selective audience kind of like Xanga and 4) you engage in a dialogue with your comments and those of us who comment can address each other as well (sort of like LJ but is structured in a linear fashion; although, it’s intimate enough that it isn’t confusing to follow the thoughts) er, and 5) I feel like I should check my spelling, which I don’t usually worry so much about on LJ because there I have a spell check!!
Yes, well, I’m sure there was more that I wanted to say… but, I think I’ll let go at this for the present.
*chuckles* if this was an LJ I would insert a picture of David *>>>>here
4. theotter | June 15th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Jillian: “Another reason why I like to distinguish between the type of blogging is because the very atmosphere of the site can change the style/tone/purpose/benefit of the online communicating.”
Interesting point! That’s something I hadn’t really thought about. Thanks for your insights.
Jillian: “er, and 5) I feel like I should check my spelling, which I don’t usually worry so much about on LJ because there I have a spell check!!”
Ah, my obsession with spelling probably helps to create this atmosphere. Don’t worry, though. I won’t bite or kick people for misspelled words. Though I might ridicule them publicly. (Kidding! Mostly.)
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