Promiscuous Fictions

Tyler Curtain initially focuses on the anxiety that is produced within the blogosphere in his article Promiscuous Fiction. He contents that anxiety is “a subspecies of the reaction to the thick of information that pours out of Google’s search space, and ultimately the Internet itself” (2). He argues that we blog as a way to make the unthinkable, this infinite amount of data, into a space where information can be shaped into knowledge that is created through a communal effort. Curtain concentrates specifically on “queer blogging” as a location where cultural, intellectual, and critical discourses are emerging outside of the world of academia. In order to make his point, he focuses on a blog, Jonno.com, that responds directly to an article written by professor Glenn Reynolds. Here Curtain points out that not only is Jonno questioning the traditional knowledge system, the university, but he also illustrates how it is the interactive nature of the blogosphere, the ability to contribute, question, and/or defend the knowledge being produced, that gives blogs their dynamic quality. “Queer knowledge making has always been a strategy of remaking and remarking: it is not simply recycling images and ideas, but rather of reconstruction” (7). For Curtain, the queer blogosphere, and blog communities in general, produce and are produced by a public that challenges the stories told by our culture.
I do agree with Curtain on a number of points, and more and more as I read/learn about the vast diversity of blogs and blog communities that are out there. The knowledge making, which according to Habermas, whose theoretical work Curtain draws on, creates a certain reality that is accepted by all members of the group to which one belongs. And while I agree that there is both power and benefit in creating these communities and producing knowledge, which could change the broader community (society more generally), I can’t help but feel this little niggling in my gut. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but still it persists. I think it must have something to do with the fact that these groups are still so distinct, that while it is clear that Jonno has gone out into the vast depth that is the Internet and brought back to the “queer world” some artifact that he addresses, it is unclear if Reynolds has any interest in hearing what Jonno says. Or it could be that these communities are producing knowledge, more often than not, with like-minded people. But even here I have trouble because Jonno has gone out of his community. Maybe it is that it seems so one sided, at least in the case of the queer community.
I come back to our blogging assignment and think about what I found. I investigated gay blogging communities and must say that I didn’t find very many blogs that addressed these kinds of topics. Even so, in a world where the blogosphere may be the only place where you feel safe to speak your mind, to stretch your thoughts, and exercise your voice, it is easy to see how powerful blogging could be/is. But somehow this sentiment seems to argue against those concerns that I stated above. Could it be the anxiety that Curtain talks about bleeding into the rest of our lives (or perhaps it was always there and is just becoming more apparent)? As you can see, I haven’t quite got it down yet. Blogs are powerful, I agree and we agreed on this in class, but for this case, the gay community, I just don’t see that power so clearly. On an individual level, where a gay person feels safe talking about gay issues, I can see it. But I am just not seeing that power present itself in society in general. And maybe that is the problem I am having. If these worlds remain distinct, will anything change? I guess it is just a matter of time. After the voices have been exercised and the ideas supported by the collective community, I doubt that these worlds will stay so distinct and maybe then that niggling feeling will go away. So this may speak to my own questions and to Becca’s. That knowledge can, and maybe should be, produced anywhere, but when it is it will, I think, be brought to challenge the existing system (whether that be universities, government, or any professionalized world) and will then have to be judged, evaluated, and rejected or incorporated…and that leads to a whole other conversation I realize, but (luckily for me) one that is just past the scope of this argument.