Snag.
Wednesday, March 15
5:42 AM
Can't possibly finish these pages before I go. So nuts to that, I guess.
Another sidenote: How blogs end
Sunday, March 12
3:28 PM
Ever since I read "How do diaries end?" I've been thinking about the unique way in which weblogs can be permanent, public, and yet never finished.
Tequila Mockingbird can leave her site for months and there's still the expectation (perhaps barely noticed, if you're using RSS) of new updates. Doubly so in her case, since we know she has an executor who'll update the site if she dies.
Some blogs do end officially, with a last statement by the writer, or, as with that blogger who was murdered, the intervention of a deep narrative of which most readers become aware — but obsolesence is the norm, and in this genre obsolence always carries with it a note of uncertainty. We think the fabula (which stems from the meatspace life of the writer) is still going on somewhere, and that the story could perhaps be picked up again.
I love
S/Z, and it strikes me that many of my theoretical issues with this book would disapear if it had been chopped up, shuffled around a bit, and presented as a weblog. No closing of the book's own list; instead, a continued expectation of further interpretations.
Prelude to a very long post
1:58 AM
Working on my first 15 pages or so, which I'll post before I leave. In the meantime, because it's hilarious, I'd like to note that my workshop briefly degenerated into Mimi-bashing this Friday.
But Mimi-bashing that opened up some potentially very productive theoretical approaches. So, score.
Also, my advisor buttonholed me after class and, with a distasteful look on his face, said "I've been reading some of those blogs you sent me. That one woman..."
Oh god, three days of solid essay-writing start tomorrow.
Corpus schmorpus
Monday, March 6
1:25 AM
Thought while I'm rewriting some thesis pages: what
is the best corpus, the blogs with the most "best writing" nominations? Or the ones that were chosen as finalists by, we assume, people who put some effort into measuring them up against the others?
I can't think of an apt metaphor offhand. The academy awards versus the top-grossing pictures? But we're not talking about hits or links, we're talking about votes in a certain category for an award. It comes down to what I think of the process used to determine the finalists — the votes of randomly chosen volunteers. Blog-conscious but not diary fans per se.
At this point I've read all the blogs in both categories, and most of the finalist weblogs. I guess I should read the top nomination-getters and see what the difference is, if any?
Alles Wird Gut
