Do you want to see a real, live dinosaur? Read up on the linked article - this author is probably the dino of dinos. Apparently, dude thinks “bloggery” doesn’t really help anybody so it sucks. Yep, by that awesome logic, we don’t need classic literature either since it doesn’t really help anybody now, does it?
Library Journal - Revenge of the Blog People!A blog is a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web. (Though it sounds like something you would find stuck in a drain, the ugly neologism blog is a contraction of “web log.”) Until recently, I had not spent much time thinking about blogs or Blog People.
He also says - “Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts.” - I guess I can say given the quality of this gentleman’s rants against blogging, I don’t think he is in the habit of dealing with actual people in the real world who like expressing themselves. What I really want him to explain is what exactly does he mean by complex texts? Shakespeare? Literary Classics? I can point a dozen bloggers who have read every single book he can throw at me. I can probably come up with a dozen equally complex texts he has probably never read. What is really the point of this superiority-complex? Who wins by this entire screed against people who range from law profs, to Iraqis expressing themselves to 10-year-olds expressing their crushes?
This is what baffles me about this everyday onslaught of every decent news organization against bloggers - Hello people, if Dan Rather didn’t run with the forged documents, if Eason Jordan only released the video of the Davos conference, nothing would have happened. Don’t fuck up and then get mad at those who caught you with your pants down. I am really sick of this crap. I think these idiots who write anti-blog rants probably take bloggers a lot more seriously than bloggers themselves.
I love what I am doing on my blog - does that mean I want to be studied in a literature class instead of Charles Dickens? No. I don’t make any claims to greatness and my readers and other bloggers I know of are all aware that we are simply people putting forward topics of discussion or little monologues of what interests us. By constantly attacking us, those who do are exposing nothign but their pettiness.
p.s. Apparently dude mentioned above is so technically advanced that he hates Google. Go figure!
Posted by shanti at February 25, 2005 11:01 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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Shanti, I think that Gorman and others of his ilk are free to build walls and refuse to venture beyond those comfortable and well known boundaries. But the fact that for all their insularity (is that even a word?!) they simply can’t resist talking about blogging, even if to rant about it, is suggestive. Of what, you ask? God knows. but it’s got to suggest something:)
Bloggers are compared to rappers and are called crude, unrefined and whatever else, but I think that they ought to be compared to olumnists/commentators too. Different manifestations of self expression, basically?
Posted by: avinash at February 25, 2005 1:35 PM
Avinash, this is the case of big, protective daddies trying to tell us amateurs to shut up and not pretend to be all grown up. You see, they don’t want to admit that maybe all this blogger self-expression is not a teen angst stage that will go away as soon as we mature.
I think it scares the media that they don’t dictate the terms of debate anymore. It galls them that a “salivating moron” “wearing pajamas” can show them up with these weird things called “facts”.
Posted by: Shanti at February 25, 2005 1:39 PM
Don’t get too hard on him. We might miss the fun ;)
Posted by: Nilu at February 25, 2005 3:41 PM
True, Nilu - that bit of not getting Google was true comedic genius and I would love to read more such :)
Posted by: Shanti at February 25, 2005 3:44 PM
This kind of thing happens in industry after industry…the incumbents don’t understand the challengers and what they signify. Integrated steel produces didn’t “get” the minimills. Mainframe computer types didn’t understand the significance of the PC. And ad infinitum. But I think the level of rage and hysteria now being shown by legacy-media-technology people is something new.
Posted by: david foster at February 25, 2005 7:26 PM
David, it is almost like they are the new conservatives leery of change :p
Posted by: Shanti at February 26, 2005 11:33 AM
I don’t mean to rain on the blog-parade here, but there are some problems in the blogosphere that need to be taken seriously. Gorman mentions the large amount of info gotten from a google search. A problem of the blogosphere is the sheer number of blogs, and the fact that the majority of them are not worth reading. I don’t really care that, e.g. Carl is worried about a spot on his dog’s belly, or that Aiko’s sister’s friend’s boss is a jerk. It isn’t always the easiest thing, shifting through piles of dung to find a diamond.
Also, a thing that I’ve noticed, especially on a lot of political blogs is a, pardon my language, sort of circle-jerk mentality. One goes to a liberal, or conservative blog, and finds nothing but agreement in the posts and comments. Yes, the internet affords one the opportunity to fact-check, but how many people fact check things that they agree with?
That said, Mr. Gorman is a bit arrogant and somewhat unjustified in what he says. I’ve got nothing against blogs, but sometimes I tire of them being labeled a panacea for the media’s problems.
Posted by: Rlootin at February 27, 2005 12:43 AM
Shanti,
Who was it that said, “Every new idea/product/whatever passes through 3 stages: ridicule, opposition, and acceptance.” This nut probably doesn’t realize that blogs now have already been widely-recognized but the bit on being “alternative media” is as Rlootin says, exaggerated. If anything, blogs can definitely act as a check (the degree doesn’t matter as yet) on the media which seems to be on the verge of getting out of control.:smartass:
Posted by: sandeep at February 27, 2005 8:13 AM
Rlootin, I completely agree with you that blogger triumphalism can get out of hands sometimes. I think blogging is still maturing as a medium for citizen journalism and has got a lot to learn as we move forward. We have a lot more bumps ahead of us before we know how to control ourselves properly.
Sandeep, absolutely right as usual :)
Posted by: Shanti at February 28, 2005 9:04 AM
Such people will eventually die out :smartass:
Posted by: Patrix at March 1, 2005 11:42 AM
True, Patrix - old ideas and people have only so much of a life :)
Posted by: Shanti at March 1, 2005 12:36 PM