I think I'll fix myself a cheese sandwich

June 19, 2001 5:05 PM

I think I'll fix myself a cheese sandwich
"Cheese sandwiches, fucked up punctuation and all! I don't give a rat's ass, I just wanna hear about people's lives." Weblogs together are learning to develope community and I miss the great blogs that are gone, but when I surf around it is to read about people's lives. "Are you ready for a breakdown, sugar? Live it up, it's blogtastic!"
posted by riley370 (10 comments total)

Riley, you are one crazy dog.

Anyone hoping mop will resurface? That girl could really turn a word.
posted by josholalia at 5:14 PM on June 19, 2001

amen
posted by Hackworth at 5:35 PM on June 19, 2001

I get easily bored by the writing of those keeping diaries because in most instances there is not sufficient interest for me in the lives of those diary keepers . See the journals of, say, an Edmund Wilson, or the Diary of Anne Frank.... I recall years ago beginninbg to read the pieces kept by women captured by indians and, pretty much like many civil war diaries re3ad in special collections, they are filled with the tedium of the day rather than the excitement that I thought would be there. And those two last categories are a bit more dramatic than the walking the streets of SoHo and the weather is great and my boyfriend seems to have lost interest in me and I may be fired next week cause my comany is not doing well etc etc etc.
posted by Postroad at 6:07 PM on June 19, 2001

With little internet time per month, kids doing home schooling and my wife's thesis...I rely on blogs like woods lot and rebecca for my daily news. And tomalak by email.
posted by riley370 at 6:14 PM on June 19, 2001

At least it's not a death penalty thread.

Yet.
posted by rodii at 8:08 PM on June 19, 2001

It's similar to the reality television buzz going around nowadays. Besides the obvious jockeying for position of studios to withstand potential union strikes in Hollywood that look like they're never gonna happen anyway, television networks have also discovered perhaps by accident that the audiences claim they want more real stuff. However, they won't tune in unless there's something at stake.

So the more interesting weblogs and online diaries out there are ones where there's something at stake. Or the real person IS real and living a real life in a real world, but is somehow able to write in such a way as to make it more real or unreal.

So we want "real" ...but not really.

What if there was an online diarist out there who was daily doing something particularly dangerous, or stress-intensive, or remarkably "different." I'm sure there are, but couple that with someone who could actually write their lifestyle in such a way as to match the greatest novelists of all time. Now THAT diarist might be able to start selling advertising, or even offering a 'premium' service. Is this already happening? I haven't seen it, but I'm sure some of you out there could link to them below and prove me wrong. I actually stopped actively reading online diaries some time ago. I try to keep half an eye on the genre, but I got too close and got burned, so I keep my distance nowadays.

But why would people tune in to a particularly unreally real online diary or blog? People don't watch car races cuz they honestly enjoy watching cars driving in a circle. They're waiting for the wreck. It's car wrecks and cringe that seem to get the most buzz going among those who read online journals. And the fame is more like 15 seconds than 15 minutes.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:09 PM on June 19, 2001

I don't agree that a life has to be out-of-the ordinary in order to be interesting.

take lilek's bleat, for example. beautifully told, wonderfully funny minutiae of everyday life.

or jessamyn's abada abada. her life is a little out of the ordinary, but it's not that she lives life on her own terms that makes her journal such a good read. it's that she's a terrific storyteller. and she does one of my favorite things: she tells the stuff that no one else will admit to.

heather's harrumph is a daily riff on whatever heather finds in front of her brain that day - little dogs, shoes, memories, or her own potty mouth. it's rarely about something big, but it's always beautifully written.

and it's the everyday detail that makes up the daily brad with his daily slice of wry.

there are lots of others, but those are the ones I read most often. the most compelling reads that I know about are by gifted storytellers, and the what of their stories is not as important as the how. - rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 8:36 PM on June 19, 2001

It's hard to get into diaries that are written and posted by people who offer up no biographical information whatsoever, not even a first name, as is the case with at least 50% of the diaries on diaryland.com. Reading about how pretty SoHo is today even though my job sucks is dull enough as it is; it's mindnumbing when you have absolutely zero reason to care about the writer.
posted by aaron at 9:55 PM on June 19, 2001

Pictures greatly grease the wheels, too. I don't need you to be pretty, fair blogger, I just need a face to inject a little relation into the voice.
posted by dong_resin at 10:16 PM on June 19, 2001

Well, it's like watching the nature shows on TV and saying "I hope that lion kills something or screws something" and realizing that 22 hours of a lion's day are spent NOT doing that.

I think humans have a tendency -- in many arenas -- to thrive on differences not similarities. Novelty over repetition. And we may [mercifully] differ on the style versus substance issue. I read blogs that make me laugh, show me beauty or are mostly the same but a little bit different than what I do. People who think their own lives are interesting tend to present them interestingly for others.
posted by jessamyn at 7:06 AM on June 20, 2001