Writing Machines is the course website for English 170L at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
A few things to take a look at...
Submitted by zoey on 18 September 2006 - 11:35am.
I've stumbled across a few blogs ( goldenfiddle and hollywoodtuna) that I don't know what to make of yet. They include links to ridiculous things and commentary but a lot of the time they're just providing comments on how female celebrities look (from a guy's perspective). A lot of the stuff is pretty sexist, and it's strange to think about how quickly photos and gossip are put up on blogs. There's something strange about looking at pictures of what some female celebrity wore yesterday and reading about how the dress was see-through or how skanky she looked. I guess these blogs are providing some kind of service that people desire, like an ability to tear down the popular girls (like Go Fug Yourself), but the sexual tone of these blogs makes them different. Maybe I'm wondering if I should be more offended by them? I'm not sure, just some random thoughts.
Also, there's an article in the NY Times that relates to the Bolter and Grusin discussion of immediacy and the idea of the medium disappearing-- MTV is introducing an online service called Virtual Laguna Beach. They quote some president of something over there as saying "You can not only watch TV, but now you can actually live it," a statement that is pretty bold and obviously an exaggeration but interesting nonetheless.
»
- zoey's blog
- Login to post comments
It's sort of sad--I had the
It's sort of sad--I had the feeling that these guys were trying to be as disgusting as possible. Does that make sense? The more offensive they are, the more likely they feel that that they will have an audience. Think Fox News.
Maybe it's sort of similar to what Natwwal was saying in her post above (link)--there is an identity that bloggers cam assume because their audience doesn't know them in real life. And these guys have decided to be misogynistic jerks. Or maybe that's optomistic--I'd rather that they be posers than that they actually believe what they post.
And the MTV thing was sort of neat. Also speaks a bit to what Burnett was saying in his intro--see page xx where he asks: "Where are images, sights, thoughts, and reflections located within virtual environments? ... The quality of the experience ... combines the virtual and real into an environment of visualization that has the potential to displace conventional notions of subjectivity ... The result is a continuum of experiences ....". Sounds exactly like what MTV is doing, no?