Wow
Sir Eric on Johnny Cash and blogging:
(You might not agree about some of his final points but they would make for one hell of a discussion. Frankly, I see Brett as kind of the Roy Orbison of blogging.)
So what about the other two and half hours that I threw away this weekend? Maybe more applicable to last week's discussion than this, early on in that Johnny Cash biopic, Cash's older brother Jack (looking forward to a future in the pulpit) says: "how can you help people if you can't tell them the right story?". Woohoo! That was about as much as my geeky little heart could take (keep in mind that this book about rabbits is one of my favorites), and so I hunkered down for a welcome lesson in the power of "myth".To what avail? Other than trotting out that old indominatible-human-spirit trope, Walk the Line made me feel like being part of the human race isn't such a bad thing sometimes, but more because of everyone in the movie who wasn't Johnny Cash. At any rate, the film was beautiful to look at, it sounded great, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were phenomenal... time and money well spent (all neglected-responsibilities considered). If blogs are art, I want to start seeing stuff with this impact in the blogosphere. But Cash is the anti-blogger in a lot of ways (most of which I don't think I quite understand). It has to do with subtlety on the one hand, and sincerity on the other. These things just don't translate so well into the blogosphere. Welcome to our whiz-bang post-ironic times.
posted by Printer's Devil @ 7:08 AM
5 Comments:
When I think of Johnny Cash, I think of listening to my grandmother playing his hymns in her Catskill home, just down the road from the dairy farm. No one ever put more heart into "Amazing Grace." To me, Johnny Cash is stripped-down, all-out raw emotion and power.
Would he be an anti-blogger? I'm not so sure. Bloggers seem to start out cautious and carefully crafting their image when they write. More often, though, those that stick with blogging end up being unable to maintain the fascade and their writing becomes more raw, more emotional, and more genuine. I see that just looking at our class's blogs. We started out trying to coolly analyze the blogosphere and ended up interwinded in each other's thoughts and emotions -- at least, a lot of us did, and in the process, revealed more about ourselves and to ourselves than we ever intended.
So maybe Johnny Cash's songs are like our last, best entries -- the real deal?
How bloggers evolve individually is how the whole 'sphere might evolve collectively.
Take art on the 'sphere as an example.
At the first, basic level, the 'sphere allows lots and lots of art to be displayed and circulated and connected and reacted to, by lots of people: the blogoshere as vast gallery.
One level deeper, because of this vast and instant connectivity, the artist herself/himself can (or must?) work in a setting of easier experimentation, more spontaneity, more and more immediate reaction: the blogosphere as more direct training ground.
Then, at the deepest level (so far), that enhanced reaction and interaction between the creator and observer makes the reaction and interaction a part of the art, the creative process, itself; more immediately and maybe therefore more concretely.
Shoot, if the thing evolves any further, we land right back at the primitive level of skin-to-skin experience: the storyteller gesturing from just across the campfire, the cave drawings, the pulse of a genuine folksong coming through a grandmother.
Also, aside, what a delight to see live memes rooting right here in our little class garden! The Johnny Cash meme
Mr. Link Wizard. Let's try this again The Johnny Cash meme
Nice Joe. I remember reading that old comment, but only after re-reading it. Meme? Swarm Logic? 100th Monkey? Stick a pin in me and put me behind glass.
Eric,
You've touched on a golden question.
The more I puzzle over memes and swarm constructions and Jungian monkey syncopations, the more I wonder - are they all the same thing?
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