I’ve been enjoying my little surfings through the blogosphere, although blogs do sometimes make me stretch my claws. There seem to be blogs about all sorts of things: even blogs about blogs.
Blogs about babies: there seem to be tons of those, I suppose someone out there – if only the writer – really does want to remember that little Johnny threw up on the couch and took his first steps today. They’re generally a bit sickly and soppy, peppered with words like ‘sweet’, ‘adorable’ and ‘precious’, but I suppose parenthood does that to people. Wouldn’t know, thank goodness. They make me feel slightly nauseous, but then I’m the opposite of sweet, adorable and precious.
There are also a lot of bogs about how people spent their day. Some are amusing, some are interesting, and some are mundane – what people had for breakfast, how many times their bowels moved, went to the shops and then went home etc, etc. Then there are blogs about how wonderful life is and how happy the writer is, and they’re full of inspiring quotes, and they seem to keep it up indefinitely. I doubt its sincere, but there it is, and perhaps it gives them a lift writing such stuff. Bet you anything you like the authors are clinically depressed, poor things.
There are pretentious blogs. Yes, I know these are people’s thoughts (At least their public ones), but some of them are pretentious, pompous people, so I suppose its natural that there should be a fair amount of pretentious, pompous blogs to match. It’s a pity that some of them can’t spell and use grocer’s apostrophes. It rather spoils the effect.
I’ve also read some pretty bad poetry, blogs dedicated to complaining about things, blogs about obscure hobbies and crafts, peculiar sexual proclivities, music, sports – the list is endless.
I think a blog is like talking to yourself out loud. You never know who might be listening, so what you project is a public persona: the sweet mommy, the person with the hunky dory life, the intellectual, the poet. Occasionally, I see a blog that seems to be completely sincere, but they’re thin on the ground and its still a public image – so self censorship seems inevitable.
I’m not sure what I’m trying to project, although I’ll freely admit that my blog is sanitized: the slightly scrubbed version of maundering mutterer, only slightly tarnished. Hope you like my semi-effulgent thoughts.
I spend a little time on a social-networking cum epal site, all based around a "profile", or blurb if you like, of what amounts to a self-evaluation. For me, I see it as a device designed to "catch attention", in much the same way as marketers portray their wares in a most inviting or stimulating way. It works too. But occasionally it does so in unexpected ways.
ReplyDeleteNot too long ago, I had some kind gentleman inform me I was a tad pretentious. I admit to being more than a little rankled at such a suggestion, till I took the trouble to find out what most people mean when they consider something so. I think it's fair to say, the following is close: pretentiousness = ostentation: lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity. Then, I took the trouble to find it's antonym and found - humility. Magically, my rankle disappeared (I realised that was the very word I'd been searching for, the term characterising this kind gent - he exuded great humility. Well, Uriah Heep I aint, nor do I aspire to be). And so it occurred to me, to a degree, due to the constraints of text-based communication, writing about oneself, whether in a blog or on a networking site, has to have about it, a "show-biz" feel. This compensates for the texts one-dimensionality, and so to one degree or another, one "tells it with oomph!".
Your blog has that quality, and oozes personality. Personality attracts where being overly 'umble doesn't. And pretentious? If the cap fits then wear it, but do so with pride. It's opposite renders one insignificant, and does anyone really want that? Hardly. Best way to acheive that is to stay away from the blogosphere and the like. More than a pinch of narcissism is required if you want to be heard.
Pretentiousness is a manipulative word, used to shame us into line. It's a hangover from a past in which our lords and masters, both religious and political, preferred us to be seen but not heard. I still get this from my mother: "ooh look at him, he's showing off!" Fuck it, just go for it.
Sorry for what amounts to being a blog post within your comment section. I really must get my "finger out" and kick-start my own, be it ever so 'umble. Chortle.
Uh.... I just wanted to say you have a cute cat.
ReplyDeleteNow, that is comment! Thanks Ronald! May you be batty forever.In the same book of quotes I read that the humble are proud of their humility.
ReplyDeleteThe cat? Thanks Ern, she's a farm cat where I work. Nice little number!
I'm another one of the pretentious types, but I really don't mind - one can be pretentious in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way. At least, I think. There is no other justifiable way of listening to opera at the age of 22.
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