August 10, 2004
In Praise of Lit Blogs
Several months ago we had a back and forth on the topic of academic and literature blogs. Today, Collected Miscellany has a post up praising them:
But I do want to point out that the resulting discussion shows literary blogs at there best: reacting, thinking, offering perspective, debating, criticizing, and adding personality. This type of extended conversation is what the nimble format of blogs allow, a sort of freewheeling debate and discussion that is emotional and intellectual, reactive and creative, personal and professional, and interesting and educational. This type of thing helps you to learn about fellow bloggers, the subject at hand, and about your own feelings and ideas by comparing and contrasting them as you go along. Throw in the satire and you have educational entertainment as horrible as that may sound.
Of course, I don't know if the lit blogs Kevin is praising are run by academics or not, which is largely what our previous discussion was about, but it's nice to see that good literature blogs are possible. I never doubted it.
But is someone who writes "at there best" qualified to discuss lit blogs at all?
Bwhahaha... I missed that one first time I read it.
Always good to see people weigh in with intelligent comments instead of snarky remarks . . .
True, true. It's easy to make speeling and grammar mistakes on blogs. I guess I should have said something along those lines in your defense, but still.. it was a funny comment, you have to admit.
I realize the person was likely joking but it is a pet peeve of mine as spelling is not my strong suit. It gets on my nerves because pointing out typos and spelling or grammar errors is an easy cut but not particularly helpful. I used to get it quite often when I first started and didn't use a spell checker much. So figured I would return his joke with a sarcastic comment.
I hate to bring this up, but I missed a second blooper in the quoted passage that I caught right after my first post: "This type of extended conversation is what the nimble format of blogs allow. . ." Subjects and verbs must agree in number -- "This type" of conversation "allows", not "allow". I make typos too, but the nice thing about blogs is that you can correct them when you spot them. Running spellcheck is just one form of proofreading. Two bloopers in a short quote is enough, to my way of thinking, to make me discount the opinion being expressed, ESPECIALLY when the writer is claiming literary expertise of some sort. Sorry, Kevin, this isn't snarking.
Hey John,
How is this for snarky: take the stick out of your ass!
Or better yet read the actual post. Here is a quote:
Blogs allow for an informality that helps people feel comfortable throwing out ideas and perceptions without fearing that they will be taken as academic assertions of fact and attacked as such. Rather it fosters an exchange between people with the same goal.
1) The post was simply an off the top of my head remark. See I prefaced it with this "I don't have anything particularly profound to add."
2) I have never claimed any kind of literary expertise. I don't have any real formal schooling in literature and I have never set myself out as an expert.
3) I was simply pointing out what I thought these blogs were doing well. This might strike you as odd but blogs are quite often places where people post their own opinions without any claim to expertise. It is a hobby; a form of entertainment.
4) I could really care less what you think. If you want to discount my opinion because of my mistakes then go ahead discount away. I don't write my blog posts to impress you. Obviously the host of this blog thought the words had some value or he wouldn't have posted them.
I am sorry you couldn't get past the error laden prose to catch the idea buried beneath. My bad.
Speaking as someone with a similar addiction to spellcheckers, I can certainly sympathize with Kevin. But blogging is also a good opportunity to sharpen these skills and learn from mistakes. There's no need to get angry at nitpickers. They're doing us a favor.