Literature
When Ian Bogost was in town last November, we talked about the strange status of blogs in the expanding arena of online publishing and twitter. So I was glad to see that he recently blogged about it, in a suitably brief fashion. I agree with Ian entirely: it's not clear to me what a blog is for any more, or how to write on (or in?) one.
It even feels weird to have this massive white open screen that I'm typing in right now, and to just be writing words and sentences like this with no limit imposed.
This weird feeling is no doubt partly caused by how much I use my twitter feed these days?which isn't really that much compared to a lot of people on twitter.
But twitter infects your thought and writing process. And I think it's mostly a good kind of infection, a productive repurposing of writerly rumination and expression.
Yet it's bizarre to feel a whole platform?this blog space that for a few years felt really comfortable and useful?become an uncomfortable, undesirable, even retrograde seeming place. To feel a medium lose its vibrancy right before your eyes...
- Fall Trips & Other Things
It's startling how fast photos can pile up in an iPhone. My colleague Tim Welsh wrote a really smart essay about Instagram that was published over at Media Commons in a cluster on "The New Everyday." I have a short piece in this series...
- The Problem
The problem with blogs is that you feel like you've got to keep them updated somewhat regularly?at least that's how I feel. I've always tried to keep a flexibly disciplined schedule when it comes to posting on my blog: I aim for two times...
- A Bit More On Twitter: Public / Tracking
The other day Tim Welsh and I were chatting about Twitter, and he raised two points that I want to take up further in this post. First we talked about the public aspect of Twitter, and how this can make it more than just an e-note-taking service. I like...
- Some Recent & Current Things
Tarmac watching at O'Hare Carolyn Kellogg wrote a very nice review of Checking In / Checking Out in the LA Times Books section. And Nicole Sheets gave the book and Airplane Reading a kind mention at Wanderlust and Lipstick. Meanwhile, I've been...
- On The Possibility Of Literature Blogs
In a discussion on teaching "Introduction to Literature" courses at UC Davis, two colleagues and I speculated about the possibility of using blogs for the entire writing content of the course. Could this be done? Here is how it might look: Each student...
Literature
Field Notes From the End of a Blog
When Ian Bogost was in town last November, we talked about the strange status of blogs in the expanding arena of online publishing and twitter. So I was glad to see that he recently blogged about it, in a suitably brief fashion. I agree with Ian entirely: it's not clear to me what a blog is for any more, or how to write on (or in?) one.
It even feels weird to have this massive white open screen that I'm typing in right now, and to just be writing words and sentences like this with no limit imposed.
This weird feeling is no doubt partly caused by how much I use my twitter feed these days?which isn't really that much compared to a lot of people on twitter.
But twitter infects your thought and writing process. And I think it's mostly a good kind of infection, a productive repurposing of writerly rumination and expression.
Yet it's bizarre to feel a whole platform?this blog space that for a few years felt really comfortable and useful?become an uncomfortable, undesirable, even retrograde seeming place. To feel a medium lose its vibrancy right before your eyes...
- Fall Trips & Other Things
It's startling how fast photos can pile up in an iPhone. My colleague Tim Welsh wrote a really smart essay about Instagram that was published over at Media Commons in a cluster on "The New Everyday." I have a short piece in this series...
- The Problem
The problem with blogs is that you feel like you've got to keep them updated somewhat regularly?at least that's how I feel. I've always tried to keep a flexibly disciplined schedule when it comes to posting on my blog: I aim for two times...
- A Bit More On Twitter: Public / Tracking
The other day Tim Welsh and I were chatting about Twitter, and he raised two points that I want to take up further in this post. First we talked about the public aspect of Twitter, and how this can make it more than just an e-note-taking service. I like...
- Some Recent & Current Things
Tarmac watching at O'Hare Carolyn Kellogg wrote a very nice review of Checking In / Checking Out in the LA Times Books section. And Nicole Sheets gave the book and Airplane Reading a kind mention at Wanderlust and Lipstick. Meanwhile, I've been...
- On The Possibility Of Literature Blogs
In a discussion on teaching "Introduction to Literature" courses at UC Davis, two colleagues and I speculated about the possibility of using blogs for the entire writing content of the course. Could this be done? Here is how it might look: Each student...