BLOG CARTOON
(Speech bubble) "I'm just updating my blog": (Computer screen) "Me Me Me Me Me Me Me"
So says the cartoon in Private Eye. In the pub last night, an anti-blog person suggested all blogs are examples of self-absorbed tedium. 'Solipsistic', I believe he said. Er, yes - of course that's true. How can you write about anything at all unless you've seen, heard, conversed, thought about it?
There is no more egocentric form of writing in my opinion than the majority of newspaper columnists. Bloggers don't even begin to compete with the likes of Euan Ferguson writing 1,000 words on the highs and lows of using cufflinks, and Barbara Ellen informing us of how she'll watch the Oscars at home in her living room wearing a dressing gown. Julie Burchill and Alexander Chanceller seem to be the only columnists who are consistently outward looking and intelligent (although Julie is occasionally ridiculous).
So, blogging is okay, just so long as noone pretends it's art. If everyone bears in mind that it's nothing more than a free outlet for people to write shite, what could be wrong with that? Having the ego to do it for a living and charge people for it is much, much worse.
(Speech bubble) "I'm just updating my blog": (Computer screen) "Me Me Me Me Me Me Me"
So says the cartoon in Private Eye. In the pub last night, an anti-blog person suggested all blogs are examples of self-absorbed tedium. 'Solipsistic', I believe he said. Er, yes - of course that's true. How can you write about anything at all unless you've seen, heard, conversed, thought about it?
There is no more egocentric form of writing in my opinion than the majority of newspaper columnists. Bloggers don't even begin to compete with the likes of Euan Ferguson writing 1,000 words on the highs and lows of using cufflinks, and Barbara Ellen informing us of how she'll watch the Oscars at home in her living room wearing a dressing gown. Julie Burchill and Alexander Chanceller seem to be the only columnists who are consistently outward looking and intelligent (although Julie is occasionally ridiculous).
So, blogging is okay, just so long as noone pretends it's art. If everyone bears in mind that it's nothing more than a free outlet for people to write shite, what could be wrong with that? Having the ego to do it for a living and charge people for it is much, much worse.
