ENTRY # 82 At Jill/txt, Jill posts about blog mutilation. Actually, shes referencing Tinka and her paratexts. Sans the datestamp, the blog narrative becomes really interesting. While the sequential nature of the entries suggests chronology, its less fixed. If the blogger plays with flashback, non-linearity becomes pronounced. What happens if Tinka plays with order in the archives?
Suppose we have the random read? Sort by title alphabetically? Im a big fan of beginnings, interesting middles, and please god satisfactory resolution. (Not necessarily happy, but closure is a good thing). Still, playing with narrative structures is an interesting proposition and blogs seem to be yet another place to play. Its a Wonderful Life played with alternate time. Equus with the flashback. I dont even know what youd call Memento…and Citzen Kane is (shrug) great. (wish I had a better word right now…hate that when presented with the superlative ineffable, my well educated and read brain short circuits and I say “fuck!”) Our inclination is to believe in forward momentum. As a storytelling device, that doesnt have to jive with time. I do realize that all this thought on blogs as a narrative medium, is an exercise on what would have to be fiction. After going cerebral about all this, at the end of the day, my blog really isnt a construct. Its just me banging at the keys, doing a feeling and brain dump. But a fictional one…hrmm. Theres probably a word for the requisite neo-bloggers blog about blogging. Blogcentrism. Blogreferential. Its the weekend. Enough, stop reading. Go outside and play.
comments
chuck, chutry@msn.com, http://chutry.wordherders.net/, , 65.140.125.212, 1059756511, 2004-05-16 20:41:18, Im not sure how to describe Memento, either, but I really want to write about its trippy temporal structure. Im a sucker for the alternate-reality film, too, especially Kieslowskis melancholic “Blind Chance.” These comments also remind me of another blog, Milons Memory, written by an Australian guy, I think. It consists of favorite memories of his friend, Milon, who died about twenty years ago. Hes been keeping the blog for a couple of years, and its a really interesting reversal of the usual way in which we think about blogs. I think were *all* “neo-bloggers” in a way, and the temptation to reflect on the form is far too great. Seems like non-academic bloggers avoid the trap of self-referential blogging the best, tending more directly toward the auto-biographical.