Tuesday 14 September 2010

the internet

Not as fun as it used to be, somehow. Or is it me?









Flight from the Enchanter, Iris Murdoch. Nearly bought this vintage Penguin with Annette swinging from the chandalier, but it was a tenner. Am on an Iris Murdoch kick. She's awesome.

10 comments:

  1. No, you’re just as much fun as you used to be.

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  2. Re: Iris Murdoch. I concur, she writes without gender

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  3. Not sure about internet. My attitude to it has changed over the years (switching the blog to private was part of it). I'm getting more careful about what I put on it, and also, increasingly, putting my real name to it.

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  4. Aw, thanks Tim.

    Emma, I don't understand how she is so intellectual and deep, but also manages to write slapstick comedy like the Marx Brothers.

    I know what you mean, B. I was given a skewed idea of blogs by one of the first bloggers I read whose domain was his entire name, and who at one point had on his blog a webcam on his desk at work and trained on his living room sofa at home! He liked attention. I came to think there might be reasons for being a little more anonymous online...

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  5. (and as part of my sneaky pro-Patrick O'Brian campaign, I'd like to point out that Iris Murdoch was a huge fan of the Aubrey-Maturin novels)

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  6. Okey dokey, he's on my list, though I suspect Iris' reading taste is more highbrow than mine.

    Tim, my reply was ungracious. You're still as fun too. And we've known each other online for four years now, you know. Hurrah!

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  7. Yeah, like you, one of the first blogs I read was someone who used their name for their domain. So I used my real name (though not my surname) when posting. I kinda wish I'd done like my missus now and been honest about stuff, but maybe used a pseudonym. Though there are heaps of bloggers who do that who end up a little unsure as to whether they are writing in character or not.
    In answer to your initial question, no, it's probably not as much fun as it was. That may just be because the novelty has well and truly gone from it now and it forms such a huge part of daily life for most people, even if they're only checking their Friendface page.

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  8. Andrew, I wish I had enough imagination to write in character, but the school system beat it out of me (that's my excuse). I liked it when (as Patroclus says) it was like a big masked ball. It felt like a new frontier, & new exciting things would come out of it. I'm old & jaded.

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  9. Agree - it used to feel different and spontaneous and seems to have lost that now. Don't know why. Thought it was just me being boring. I am eternally grateful for blogging in the first place though otherwise we wouldn't have met x

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  10. Aw, thank you RoMo, me too, my lovely. I am grateful to blogging for all the people I met or know online from it.

    One thing I was just thinking when I saw Tim's link on Twitter to a stooooopid Toby Young article on "Free Schools" was that the intelligence & dissent I read on the internet daily has made me realise how fucking dumb many mainstream media writers are, & how they've got away with it without criticism for so long.

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