Week 11--What Genre is the Blog?

This does not have much to do with blogs, but with genres in general (hah) and how they relate to life...

On Thursday I heard Junot Díaz speak at Haverford. He just won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which I read in my Spanish class last semester--I recommend it to everyone. I am still excited about his talk 3 days afterwards, it was fascinating and he is just such a cool (or as he would say, "dope") person.

Anyway one thing he talked about that related to genre was how he thinks about fantasy, history, and dictatorships. (His book is about a fantasy-loving Dominican nerd named Oscar who lives in NJ, and his family in the DR during the time of the Trujillo dictatorship). Basically, fantasy/history/dicatorships all have the same structure in that they are controlled, self-contained worlds that have their own rules. For example, things can happen in Narnia or Middle Earth that can't happen at Bryn Mawr in 2008, or in a realistic fiction novel. In the same way, the rules for social interactions, technology, etc. at Bryn Mawr in 1895 were not what they are today (there wouldn't be computers-that would be against the rules). And during the Trujillo dicatorship, an atmosphere was created where it was normal for people to disappear without a trace and for killings and beatings to happen with no accountability, whereas outside a dictatorship that would be totally unacceptable.

I thought this was amazing. It's like genre is everywhere, because genre is the rules. We apply genre to literature, and blogs, but in a larger sense everything is decided by the rules we (society?) build up around our lives. Díaz said that there is something "sinister" about our desire for fantasy/fiction, because it is so closly related to our acceptance of other rules/realities. Dicatorships wouldn't exist if people didn't buy into the rules, the fantasy world, that dictators set up. If anyone can formulate a genre, then anything can happen within the "world" of that genre--from unicorns to genocide.

Okay so I've been sitting in the BMC Library (Cannady to be specific) for the past oh 76 minutes watching that amazing lecture that Marina posted. It's so great! Now you have two recommendations to watch it. So listen!

Under the video is a link to his blog too, if anyone's interested....I haven't had a chance to look yet.

I've been wandering through the world of blogs and i'll let you know if i find anything worth while.

Initially, I was a little confused about what to post this week, as I don't read blogs. It's not because, I don't want to, I'm just not quite a part of the 21st Century yet, but all of that can change. As I said in class, Xanga was my first experience with blogging. I jumped on at the tail end, when really only the core bloggers were left. I got one, because many of friends had one, but found myself not quite understanding it's use once I had one. The "function" didn't seem to be a part of the genre. Some people seemed to be using it as diary, others to expressing things they'd been thinking about, publish their creative writing, and just keep in touch, and up to date. I found it interesting that our discussion on Tuesday seemed to discuss the nature of blogging in terms of the community online it make, but for me, having a blog became an essential part of being accepted into a community in "real life." Since this time, I think Facebook has filled part of the role that Xanga did. Facebook functions much more to keep people in touch, and less for publishing or diary sake, and new sites have been created to fill this void. I hadn't noticed it before, but it's kind of like evolution.

Last thought before I sign off. I was talking to one of my very good friends who is now in Washington D.C. She was one of the hard core bloggers I mentioned, and still keeps a pretty active site. We got talking on the subject of blogs, and she said that she felt "validated" that blogging was being discussed in an academic setting. I thought that was neat.

Calderon

I think that we have talked about personal and public blogs. I am more interested in the publicblog than the personal. I like this blog

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/04/09/fedspeak-highlights-kroszner-on-fed-moves/?mod=WSJBlo

 Here is another great blog to look at.

http://blog.mises.org/archives/008007.asp#comments

Interestingly enough, I found myself wondering, as I was choosing blogs to share with you all, what a blog was.

I found one blog that is rarely updated and which does not include the option for others to comment. It is, however, extremely grammatically correct along with narcissistic, crude, and downright offensive. But I love it anyway. Although quite amusing, it is not really the best page in the universe. For those who feel overwhelmed, I would suggest heading to the bottom of the page and reading the topics under "Read these classics or go to hell." Enjoy.

Another blog, updated more than once a day, is a quite interesting source of other people’s ideas and creations. The author rarely writes a long and detailed blog about his opinions and thoughts. Instead, he usually tells a story or provides a picture, comic, or video that may interest the reader. Maybe the friendly atheist is being a bit too friendly by not voicing his opinions. Oh well, I form some of my own by reading it so I guess he has at least achieved something.

Yet another blog that I enjoy fits the more stereotypical definition of a blog. The author updates the blog often; he talks about his life, his opinions, and the world around him. He is quite funny and entertaining. He has a comments section where people can write anonymous comments regarding his posts. The site name is a mouthful: it is pharyngula.

And hark! Be that another blog that I see, rising from the horizon like a great white whale? But this time, it is a normal blog in disguise; this one is written by science writers. Not just normal science writers, but ones who work for nature. This blog keeps you updated on all the goings-on in the world of science and the great beyond.

Heavens me… where does that leave us? What genre does a blog belong to? Must it be updated often? Must it include a section for outside comments from readers? Must it be by hired writers or by freelancers? Must it include its own original content? What a strange and unruly world this train of thought has left us in.

Perhaps we chose the wrong path, the wrong trajectory. Perhaps the blog is in fact straightforward and simple to categorize. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps: but rather, not. I predict that the genre of the blog will be just as murky (or maybe more) as the previous genres we have tried to simplify.

Some core differences between blogs and books: the ability to edit and the ability to respond to comments. Books, however, have the tendency to be trusted more than blogs. Books have been weeded out and labeled by someone as worthy of our eyes. Blogs, on the other hand, are a case of first generation ideas that have not been run through an editor, a printing press, or a critic before entering our brain. On the other hand, its faster shutter speed has allowed the blog’s view of the world to dominate the present, up to date, here-and-now opinions.

Will blogs ever replace books? I don’t think so—their qualities are so different and their benefits and setbacks so defining, that one could never replace the other. Instead, the blogs will probably run off with the books and form a giant orgy of multiplicity; the spawn will be a completely new genre that we cannot even fathom. Will it take up the ‘best’ characteristics of both? Or will it, inevitably, take up the worst?

I am happy to wait and see. I wouldn’t dare spoil the ending for myself by guessing.

Calderon

I think that blogs are great because unlike books there is a response to my doubts, thoughts, beliefs, political views and so on. I think that I also like it so much because it gives me time to think more (I don’think too fast) and then write my response to what the comment on the blog isabout.  I love books and think thatthey are very different than blogs. On “Blogging as an emerging genre” there is a post by Dr. K and he makes the case that blogs can’t ever be as good as having a conversation face to face, because blogs are superficial. But the problem is that he is trying to compare two very different things. I think that a blog changes its views and has many voices, while a book has only have a few or sometimes just one.  Also, I am not always interested in having conversation, because sometimes I can’t think of all the things I can say during an educated argument, but the blog gives time to think and answer when I am ready. There are so many different blogs and what they might mean to people is different. For me I think of blogs not only as a genre, but a tripback in three seconds to my country (or to any place I feel like).  I look at this blog http://www.guate360.com/  daily. I am planning on writing my paper on this blog ( I am sorry it’s a Spanish blog) and I would really appreciate if some of you guys tell me what you think about it!!! I think that we can really talk about the economic point of view of blogs and how they have become another form of market to some and a social form to others.

Oddly enough, I have at least partly read, if not followed, all the blogs already mentioned.  I shall add a few more to the list.

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/  Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert), who is good at political rants and satire

 http://www.atheists.org/nogodblog/ No God Blog, which serves as both a news source for atheists and a space for freedom-from-religion arguments

http://www.boingboing.net/ for interesting news stories

And they're all pretty different from each other.  I think of blogs more as structures, in the way that magazines are different from newspapers, which are different from novels, which are different from plays.  But blogs can literally be about anything, written in any style, by anyone with an internet connection.  But maybe that's the unifying factor that makes them all one genre.  Blogs don't go through editors and publishers in the way that books do, even if someone else reads through the blog before each posting.  The writer can still post exactly what they want in most cases.  They're an unfiltered look at a person's thoughts (other than the filters the writer herself uses).

A blog that I don't read very often but love the premise of is Overheard in New York. It's written by anyone who has overhead something worth remarking on in the city. Incidentally, one entry reminded me of one of the issues in Laurie Mcneill's article. She mentions realizing that she had "brought my book culture values to bear on texts not meant to be read in this way". In the same way that Ebonics is not ungrammatical simply because it is not standard English, "cyberspeak" has its own rules. Perhaps more importantly, blogs don't just break the rules of the diary genre: they make new ones, and create a new genre in the process. I'm looking forward to talking about this is class.