Response to "Permiscuous Fictions"

First off, hats off to Becca for starting this conversation. While reading her post it was like she was inside my brain. I, too, was drawn to this essay because of the art of visual grammar. I especially am interested in how it could change academia and public schooling overall. I loved Becca's assessment that navigating the blogosphere can make one feel both "smarter and dumber" at the same time. This paradox is true in many instances when it comes to me and the crashing waves of technology that threaten to wash me ashore. So, Becca's assessment was spot-on and refreshing, and fun to read. I thank her for giving me a springboard for my own discussion.

Other than the art of visual grammar, I was immensely fascinated by Tyler Curtain's discussion of deep vs. surface web. At times, I feel I am simultaneously immersed in them both. While at other times, I feel that, on some level, all web experiences are of the surface variety. There is always the opportunity to dig deeper, do more research, and ask more questions. I was easily seduced by Curtain's definition of promiscuity: "accretion and re-articulation without regard to proper boundaries." I am fascinated by the notion that this "promiscuous fiction" that is blogs, connects people on a level that face-to-face conversation and print publication does not allow. Curtain is also concerned with "queering" and the travesty that its import is often ignored within the hegemonic powerstructure that exists even online. Sexuality and desire are even commodified in unimaginable ways within the blogosphere. Curtain says, "Our hits mean we're hit on." This provocative play on words signals an intimate link between sexuality and online textuality. Furthermore, the link is the primary mode of making a gesture, sexual or otherwise. Finally, Curtain ends with his definition of "public" which entails an "ongoing, unfolding history of readers." Queerblogging, warblogging, techblogging, and other forms of blogging, each form their own niche in the world of blogging. Curtain would suggest, as would I, that these online universes need not exist seperately, but rather collaboratively.

I am totally fascinated by the terminology used in this essay. Curtain's visual grammar is quite striking. The idea of hitting the "refresh" buttom as a discursive means of reproducing time, hoping for new posts, and feeling the incessant need to connect with strangers on a daily basis makes a striking comment about the necessity for human interaction while on a machine. Curtain almost makes this need sound nuerotic; yet, who among us does not refresh our email while reading it to make sure we haven't missed anything new? I think its a combination of the fear of being left out of the loop and not having the most current, up-to-date information available. Technology has allowed us to find out things almost as quickly as they are happening. The need to hit the "refresh" buttom is communal amongst the blogger generation. For some reason, we need to feel like we are informed about what's going on as soon as possible as not to miss out on some opportunity, whether real or imagined. Perhaps it is nuerotic. Or perhaps we are just products of our webiverse and have no control over this kind of impulse. Or do we?

This essay was quite interesting to me because of its treatment of the gay community online. We always hear about and talk about online communities, yet we rarely talk about them in terms of gender and desire. Jonno makes the excellent point that when we ignore "divergent" community's opinions, we are missing out on the opportunity to gain new perspectives and learn something different about ourselves and the communities we live in. Why are we so afraid to try something new and denounce the unfamiliar?

When given this assignment, I immediately printed it out so I could mark it up while reading. But when I got home, I realized that the right side of each page was missing a few words. Determined not to kill another tree, I actually sat at my computer in my robe and read online. I must say, that I have NEVER read an essay online because I do not like sitting in front of a computer for an extended period of time. But I must say, it was rather painless and over before I knew it. It actually may have even been easier to read online since I was able to simultaneously distract myself with various links that I found rather interesting. Of course this is not possible using my old standby material practice.

As far as blogging is concerned, I think everybody, at some point in its development, is partly right about blogging. Its both personal and private, social and academic, and is still in its infancy, I believe. The range of possibilities for online publishing, pedagogy , and other important issues surrounding blogging will continue to unravel for decades to come. This is only the beginning.