A study in post-expressionism
April 16, 2006
Daniel says: Rarely in the comment section of a blog, do commenters make note of the blogger’s style. Unless you are deliberately writing poetic or descriptive writing, people seem to focus on your argument, your research, your politics. This is perhaps strange, as I believe the real struggle in writing is not logic or data (you have those long before you being typing) but of rhetoric. The blogger sits down and asks not, “What do I believe?” but “How am I going to put this”? The real enemy a writer faces is language; particularly in the blogging medium, mostly posts are written fairly quickly without much reference to outside facts, so how the writer writes is essential. It would be nice to occasionally see comments saying something like, “As a side issue, your argument about China is infantile, but I want to say that paragraphs two and three were beautiful”.
“Thankfully I haven’t been blogging long enough to get emotional about people’s comments, my posts, or lack of either.” At least, this is the lie I keep perpetuating for myself. Call me sensitive.
I agree with Daniel’s statement above, even though it is yet unclear what kind of writing this particular blog will develop into. I am unashamed to say that often style is content. This works out quite well for someone with little to say. Obviously.
This whole blogging thing is still very new and awkward for me, if not entirely daunting. I am still struggling with the question “Why blog?” I have no particular political stance which compels me to write such as Michael, no fountain of creativity pouring forth like Daniel, or Mark’s skills in so many areas. As for the rest of you Taiwan bloggers out there, what with teaching, parenting and feeling sorry for myself, I just don’t have time for anything else…
But getting back to my question “Why blog?” I Googled the question and got over 800,000 hits. I also Googled “Why write a diary?”, and got 99 hits. It seems I am not alone on this one. I often find myself thinking about something I want to write, but then hesitate for fear that the “wrong people” will read it. I have no illusion as to the readership of this blog, but I don’t feel free to really rant about work, family and friends as I would with a diary, for example. Daniel wrote about that in one of his posts. So why? It’s part narcissism, part reverse-voyeurism. But as Nebulon Fry states, it’s also a quest. So far it has been a selfish thing, and I suppose this will always be elemental. But from the very start, I found a community of interesting and more importantly, interested people. My initial attempts at networking turned into very pleasant, stimulating and rewarding personal meetings, which I look forward to again. But in the back of my mind, I can’t help but wonder: is the continuity of fleshy encounters contingent on blogospherical quotas? What if I can’t keep up with the bloggy Joneses?
I read a post in another blog which stated:
When I realized that people were actually reading what I wrote, and that they found it helpful, I made a conscious attempt to make my blogging more useful. What have I learned and experienced that other people might find useful? What software could I try out that people would find helpful to learn about?
It made me think of Bill Cara, a Canadian out of retirement who blogs about “Capital Markets and Social Equity”. His is a very useful and educational blog, often offering insight and advice that would normally cost big bucks. His output is also quite prolific. (Where do you guys find the time?)When I read his “about” page, I was blown away by what he was doing and wrote to tell him.
I’d also like to be of service, too. It certainly would help justify to my wife the time I spend on the computer. So far, my area of expertise is recovery form alcohol and drug addiction. Had blogging been a fad 10 years ago, and had I been conscious, I could have given a few pointers on lying, cheating and being a general sack of shit. Unfortunately, those days are gone.
I have a friend who consciously does not blog or leave comments, though he reads well enough. I know this because if there is a lull in my posts, he taunts me with ineffectual jabs about my getting slack; I can hear him laughing now. Perhaps he’s figured something out that I have yet to discover. Until then, I’ll stay in the trenches.
Posted in commentary, gray matter, responses
content rss
April 21st, 2006 at 12:46 am
Hey, Patrick! That was interesting reading, as usual. I hope you don’t mind me making a suggestion regarding presentation. I think that the top image in this post (the one with the goggles) would look better if the text weren’t right up against it on the right side. I experimented with it a bit and I think it would look good if you added
style="margin-right: 5px;"
to that particular <img> tag.
I have to disagree with you about your professed lack of skills, though. You speak four languages (that I know of)! There’s a lot you could write about your experiences with language learning, explaining things to monolinguals, your habits regarding when you speak what, etc… There are all kinds of things I’m curious about related to that.
April 21st, 2006 at 7:24 am
I thought the same thing, Mark. Thanks for the suggestion. I plugged the code you suggested (changed right with left) and the result you can see above. What I want, though, is the picture to align like in the original post, except with a 5px margin all along it.
I’m thinking about a post regarding my own experience with language acquisition, though I always worry worry it will make me look like a charlatan (as a language teacher).
April 21st, 2006 at 11:44 pm
I see the problem. The image isn’t floating anymore. You can fix that by adding “float:left;” to the style attributes in the image. In other words:
style="margin-right: 5px; float:left;"
Ideally, you could make a class in your CSS file to handle how your images are displayed. Then you can just add class=”blahblahblah” to your image. Actually, I see a .i_left and a .i_right in your .css already. Maybe you could modify and use them for your pictures.
April 23rd, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Thanks, bro!
April 25th, 2006 at 12:04 am
It’s a big question. I think that you have a lot of very interesting things to say about Taiwan, Asia, and the addiction stories would be great to hear. How to be a sack of shit would be fascinating, if it’s not too painful to talk about.
Give it time, that’s all I can say. You become faster at waffling, your writing becomes cuter, your audience builds up. But don’t write for the comments or hits, otherwise it’s a vain, insecure journey, with nothing at the end (note to self: don’t write for comments or hits). I’d love to hear more about teaching, language learning, parenting, being lost in Asia, foreigners in Indonesia, Chinese Indonesians, Islam in Indonesia.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Daniel,
Thanks for the encouragement and tips. Although writing about addiction, recovery and the myriad stories suffused in a multicoloured fog of potent substances and indecency would be the more interesting read, it is a precarious endeavor to write about it. I don’t have any qualms personally: I’ve dealt with my greater demons, and deal with my demi-demons as they show their face. I also have nothing to hide, though I tend to divulge things to people who I believe will protect my anonimity. And if they don’t, and somehow what someone says about me gets me into some kind of trouble, there is a tacit understanding that they would be judged harshly by me and those who know me well. That is somewhat different than sharing my former escapades with the world at large and having them discovered by, se, a parent of one of my students. Or a disgruntled co-worker. I tend to rock the boat, so there isn’t/won’t be a lack of these…
That being said, my ” addiction issues”, in broad terms, are a bit of a public secret. If you look in some of the English newspapers, my first name and home phone number are listed as the Taichung contact for a certain fraternity that deals with such things. The nature and size of the foreign community in Taichung is such that anyone who knows me, or knows of me, knows that I am that person. Even some of my employers know.
However, protecting the integrity and the anonimity of this part of my life is more important to me than, well, everything else. So, go slowly I will.
If you want to know how to be a sack of shit follow these simple instructions:
1. Drink and do drugs until it becomes the most important thing in your life.
2. Um…there is no number 2.
April 28th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
I completely understand the urge to keep things semi quiet. And I agree that there is a big difference between having information available and broadcasting it.
Would you like me to post something about your school?
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