ah, the uses of a blog
Naureen's assessment of the her friend's usages of the blog system (under the header of "i'm not fucked, not quite" appropriately?) bring up a lot of interesting points that I'd like to address. I recognize the very self-referential nature of this, but follow me along a bit...
communication as avoiding communication, take 1
the concern of blogging as a tool that communicates and avoids communication is an interesting paradox. but i'm not so certain that i can agree one avoids communication. instead, blogging appears to provide a different avenue of communication. this definitely destroys earlier models of how communication must take place, but could appear with the idea that new medias (or new mediums) make earlier models obsolete (the really explicit thesis of an interesting book titled
remediations). Acceptance with the fact that we're living in an utterly communication-crazy world (go watch dogville to acknowledge how little talking can actually happen in 3 hours, trust me, it's scary), blogging appears to be another place for communication.
as a public forum, it becomes an exhibitionist outlet of communication. some people read this blog...
(
and would like to send a massive shout-out to mel, miguel, naureen, and all those other people who don't comment, but damn well should...)
(pretention alarm!!!!)
to make blog-writing artistic, the inevitable modernist view makes the work thoroughly dependent on the expression of alienation. certainly this framework explains the seminal works of dadaists, and (your favorite artist/musician/writer from the 20th century pre-1970s here) - these expressions make clean narratives for history, but mebbe in the present things are revealed to be 'dirtier' (or not so explicitly causal, or unified messages). i'm not sure if bloggin allows such a clean narrative, as these expressions must take place on a very micro-scale. what blogging becomes, in essence, is a ephemeral documentation of sorts (to wrap all my projects up in one basket) - ephemeral as intrinsically tied to a particular moment. this is poignant set against the blog-etiquette of dating each entry. so, the division between art and documentation gets all blurred up into a massive ball of time-love. our own little private island for others to explore with us.
sweet sweet alienation
and so, my thrown-out comment the other day regarding estrangement comments less on what my blogging does to counteract that, but instead to celebrate it. it's kind of like social critique artwork a la fight club - with a tasty little article for all those
brown-nosing students in the front of the class. exhibitionism and alienation musn't be two opposing forces, and in fact, i'd argue they fuel each other - for example, the chronically depressed comedian (hmm, i think i believe all comedians must be chronically depressed to be funny - strange realization). but the comedian, to play out the example, must create a world where these expressions touch his audience (comedians is just one of the zillion male-dominated fields) - this comes through context. blogging is a medium that dually creates texts and contexts - with links, pictures, and sentiments as documentation, the context is created simultaneously with the text.
Commenting on alienation has been a very effective means of expression, but musn't be the only form. And so, to explain the intentions of blog-writing through the lens of alienation makes everything a little too clean-cut (and reveals some short-comings when used
as expression within a blog). writing about alienation provides sentiments of a particular author, but reveals no sense of context - mebbe the biggest pitfall for greater acceptance of LiveJournals, yes? instead, i find the most expressive blogs constantly creating the context in their own particular fashion - i'm especially thinking of
Jahsonic's blog and Eddy's edifying glimpses of news events. with media saturation of the web, what is chosen to be examined expresses as much of the comments regarding it.
in short, mebbe there's no reason to accept alienation insomuch as to completely ignore it. but my argument is weak, as am i.
a quick example and then i'm gone - Kanye West's "Through the Wire"
As much as West's retelling of his accident is poignant, set against the direct-rip of chaka khan's through the fire, the song gains an immediacy for a certain audacity. this song is explicitly dependent upon its music surroundings and is brilliant because of it. it's reworking the cultural landscape, and acknowledging it. the music wasn't made in any sense, but creates an immediate world for Kanye to express the experience - a creation of contexts, or inter-texts. mebbe it's dependent on a loosening of authority for the expressor - we all read differently, and that should be acknowledged from the start.
