I might have mentioned in passing here, and I know I’ve said on Facebook, that I’ve become interested lately in exploring some themes which don’t really seem to fit into the LP space, and also in a more personal form of blogging, and indeed, a more writerly form of blogging.
One of the issues I’ve been interested in discussing is the complex intersections of the religious, the spiritual and the social. That’s in part from a place based perspective – associated in particular with the continuing life of Saint Mary’s, South Brisbane – and in part from a radical Catholic position. In the process of so doing, I’ve been addressing some themes both personal and philosophical.
I’m not entirely certain the ‘one size fits all’ blog works for this sort of discussion. I’m also not interested in getting into an argument about the existence of God, or whether all religion is evil, or Richard Dawkins, or whatnot. That sort of thing might have its place, but it’s rarely conducted with much intellectual rigour, and it simply doesn’t do anything for me.
Anyway, I write this really just to highlight some of what I’m doing for the benefit of those who enjoy my writing and appreciate my perspective. There are actually crossovers between this mode of blogging and my political and sociological interests (it would be odd if it were otherwise – given that the personal is the political, and vice versa). It does seem to me that something has been lost in the massifying of the blogosphere – much of the personal element which was once its creative wellspring. In part, I think it’s been lost because of a certain masculinism (and sometimes even an anti-feminism). That personal tone is something of value and something I’m keen to revive. I’d be delighted if any LP folk wanted to check out what I’ve been up to at Angelus Novus.
I’ll also be blogging at BrisCulture more often from now on in. Now that we’ve held our first event, we’ll be utilising the blog more for substantive discussion and – among other things detailed in this post – for fostering a critical review culture, something that is largely absent in the Brisbane mediasphere. But more of that later.
In a lot of my past writing on blogging, I’ve identified the local as the space where blogs can have most impact, and I’m now practising what I’ve preached.
The image, which I’ve used as a header at Angelus Novus, is adapted under a Creative Commons licence from a lovely photo by eob on flickr. It shows Angeline Gragasin as the Angel of History in a Chicago play staged by National Headquarters, also called Angelus Novus.
good on you!
cheers
Thanks, Ambi. Sorry I never got to replying to your comment on AN, btw, I’m crazily busy at the moment! Looking forward to fewer 12 hour days!
much of the personal element which was once its creative wellspring… lost because of a certain masculinism (and sometimes even an anti-feminism)
I’m not really sure what you mean by this, Mark. Back in the Good Old Days (i.e. 2002-05) when I was still running Hot Buttered Death, most of my favourite blogs were the ones that actually gave you a sense of the person operating the blog as an actual individual rather than just a political preference, and it seems to me male bloggers were as likely to run blogs of this sort as female ones. Conversely, female bloggers seemed as likely to be ra-ra keyboard commandos in the war on liberalism (next to which, of course, the war on terror paled in importance) as male ones, and I can think of a few who outstripped the men in ferocity at times (I’m thinking particularly of Tim Blair’s old webhostess Andrea Harris, of whom I think even Blair himself was kind of afraid).
So I’m not really sure how big a part conventional gender expectations etc play a part in these things… that said, of course, unlike me you’ve actually kept up with the course of blogging in the latter half of this peculiar decade, so you’d probably have a far better idea than me of how things stand these days in blogland.
But be all that as it may; I think the real problem with the loss of personal tone (if such a thing is happening or has happened) is more likely the increase in the number of multi-author blogs. When you have multiple voices on a blog, especially a broadly political one, the individual interests and particular passions perhaps get flattened out, and you may find yourself in the position you seem to have found yourself in where the stuff you really want to write about no longer really fits the group blog. The group blog model has advantages, but it can stifle the individual personality a bit.
At least that’s how it seems to me, but then again it’s about quarter past two a.m. and there’s a good chance I’m talking out my arse without a clue about anything, least of all reality. Which I can do at any time of day (that I’m awake), of course, but I’m particularly good at it around this hour of the night.
“actually gave you a sense of the person operating the blog as an actual individual rather than just a political preference, and it seems to me male bloggers were as likely to run blogs of this sort as female ones. ”
Not to self promote but of course, we try :p
James, was it a ‘war on Liberalism’ = Liberal Party ??
or liberalism?
just asking
Angelus Novus is now on my feed reader – I probably won’t be commenting there much, but I’ve read the first few posts there with great interest. Thanks Mark!
I was reading Winter’s Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning about cultural codes and languages of mourning and I turn the page and there is the Angel of History staring at me, a water colour by Paul Klee, 1920.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelus_Novus
“[The Angel's] eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned towards the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress. (‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’, p. 249) ”
http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/egk10/notes/postmodernism.htm
Good name for a blog. Apt for a new phase. And the name – easy peasy. So much easier to explain that the masked player going forth to unmask the masked who don’t want to be unmasked. Man, people’s faces when I try to tell them about that. I end up just saying its means an Italian Papal Rodeo from the middle ages. They seem to accept that better generally.
Congrats to Markus Novus.
Heh!
Thanks, Casey! (and Klaus!)
Thanks Casey,
you had me wandering off into Walter-Benjamin-on-the-web last night. Enjoyable.
Benjamin’s always worth a good wander, on the web or otherwise!