My post about hiding behind my blog has engendered fascinating conversations, conversations I’d love to continue and will but not just today. Today I have a wedding to attend. Leaf through the trackbacks (especially Steve and Shelley) for interesting posts. [update 13/4: Diane (11/4) and Grumpygirl have nice (non-trackbacking) comments too, and I already mentioned Mark, Torill and Lisbeth.]
I'm Jill Walker Rettberg, author and professor of Digital Culture at the University of Bergen in Norway. I co-direct the Center for Digital Narrative, a 10-year Norwegian Centre of Research Excellence, and I lead the ERC project Machine Vision in Everyday Life. This site started as my blog in October 2000.
Lisa
Oh, I hope the wedding turns out to be a hopeful experience, Jill (rather than a pressing on the tender bruise).
I followed the trackbacks and was so glad I did: after keeping a writers resource site for four years I’m just now keeping a blog and finding it both worthwhile and very scary. I’ve had a newsgroup for a few years now, but somehow the blog seems much more out there and exposed.
Anyway, thanks for sparking such thoughtful, brave conversations.
Lisa
Anonymous
nice
Jason
As I was reading Steve’s trackback post, a thought occurred to me. It’s been digging around in my head for the last few hours, so I figure I’d toss it out there.
I wonder if blogs could serve as a projection of abstract desires. For example, there are the typical Amazon Wishlists which project material desire, a realm of experience that is ok to share– but then with powerful and/or painful experiences, the “tell me a story” nature of the blog seems to encourage that this kind of thing– but maybe it can only be shared obliquely.
The casual reader will probably skim through the entries, not noticing anything. I’d have to say that the generic blog is lighthearted, making the most out of bad situations and embracing the good times. Living the maxims and ideals that are found in leadership and how-to manuals that seem to be so popular.
But perhaps only the author and/or the careful long-time reader can identify that something is amiss by noting the subtle nuances in a blogger’s writing style or, in the online environment, a change in certain links on the blogroll. Or perhaps the addition of a more prominent way of contacting the author, as a way of saying, reach out.
Personally, I don’t buy the arguments that blogging is exhibitionism. Some people may do it for that reason, but I think a more solid case can be made by tracking the changes in blog desig, writing and linkage over time.
steve
Jason, that’s an interesting idea. One of the points I’ve been trying to develop in my own understanding of (and writing about) weblogging is the importance of time to writers AND readers, to the process in general. You’ve added a new dimension to those questions for me–thanks.
Jill
The “tell me a story” nature of the blog – oh, I love that, Jason. And I love how several people who’ve continued on from my hiding post have written of the ways in which their writing shifts – Steve’s Fed Ex story, Jason’s camgirls and opera, the poem Boynton quoted in a comment. Social story-telling…
And the wedding was lovely, for a long while, though I did need a couple of lengthy escapes to the ladies’ room (I guess men might not be able to do that, regaining your cool in a urinal sounds hard?) and an earlier getaway than I probably would have had otherwise. But no, it was lovely and they’re a beautiful couple. And hey, she had a horrible breakup two years ago. Now she’s found Mr Even Righter!
Timothy
Woa I love weddings. That’s where I met my lovely new girlfriend. Good luck.