I came across a blog while mindlessly surfing the internet. In it, the author cursed the medium of web logs, arguing that to write on one or to read one is a bigger waste of time then smoking weed and watching adult swim cartoons. He ranted that blog writers are absolutely self absorbed, that by dumping their inner emotions out into cyberspace for everyone to read, they are causing real harm to society. I agree with him....Well maybe not about the destruction of society, but maybe about the dangers of self absorbtion. I must point out that he, as an antiblog blogger, is a hypocrite, like us all. So with that in mind I will very self consciously write the following...
The kids in my class are so damn smart. They use big words to showcase their big minds which are producing big ideas. They are at the top of a high intellectual tower. I am not on the top of the tower. In fact, I feel so low intellectually that if the world of intellect is circular, than i am so far under the the tower that i am in a dimensionless pocket next to the top of the tower. This position next to the tower, but not on it, puts me within earshot of the people chatting on the tower roof. Their voices are always coming out of their moving mouths. They puke out big words, out of their smart mouths. The words don't mean anything. The tower is covered in the sounds of their words--their empty words. I am hovering near the top of an alphabet tower--I am in an alphabet basement. They are building the tower with their words and I am in some weired subterranean cavern getting stoned.
5 comments:
Wow. Talk about taking an analogy too far. I think the tower just fell on logic and killed it. Sure a lot of bloggers are helplessly self-absorbed but you don't have to blame blogging - it was already there. And bloggin itself isn't all bad. Communicating and connecting, getting feedback on ideas, certainly can have positive effects - the trick is to not be so self-absorbed that you can actually listen and see what is going on elsewhere. You don't even have to use big words.
yeah i agree with you... hell i am a blogging fool... it is academia that is the tower... not the bloggers
I guess all i am trying to say is that by using exclusive language one cuts 90 percent of the people out of the conversation. Lets ditch the the beuracracy of language and start communicatinig with our bodies. Free love man!:)
i am not sure what i am saying... maybe i am being reactionary. i am trying to understand how 30 people can sit in a circle and praise a director for portraying transgender people as brave and couragous... My problem with language isn't big words... it is using words like sterotype and transgender without batting an eyelash. What do those words really mean!? Do i care if a man dresses like a woman and sucks penis in the studio dressing room? not in the least. but do i think he is couragous for challanging sexual norms. NOPE. i think he is using survival stradagies just like me and everyone else. we all do weird stuff. If space aliens came down and observed our behavior we would all be equally as crazy. but for some reason White Men are "stupid" and drag queens are noble. language that attacks one group while victimizing another is the same sort of language that justified european colonialism in the first place and every other conflict in history. When are we going to admit that we are all eaually strange creatures on a strange planet in the corner of an even stranger universe, and then do something about moving beyond that.
pull your head out matt... you cynic!
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