Monday, March 26, 2007

Talkfest: Blogging and identity

There's some quality late-night-dorm-room-style philosophizin' going on in the comments section of Books Inq., the blog of Philadelphia Inquirer Book Review editor Frank Wilson.

Responding, this Saturday, to the argument that blogging isn't just another form of writing, it's a performance in which the performer is constantly in flux, Wilson wondered, "Isn't writing also a kind of performance? Are we ever not performing?" One reader, Art Durkee, replied: "Any presentation of self is a performance. However, and it's a big however, there are difference scales of authenticity within performance." Rus Bowden wrote a long response, concluding: "If I ever were to become a stable 'I', will I agree with myself, or will this have been someone else's thoughts? Or, is there a stable 'I' trying to get through to you all through whomever this 'me' is writing this blog?"

Neil Forsyth got off a good one:

Don't know what you are all talking about. "I" was made redundant as a concept following cutbacks in the second half of the 20th century (or rationalisations, as they were euphemistically called). In fact, "I" was one of the first to be let go. Sadly, it now spends its time in the garden of authenticity smoking roll-ups and pruning roses. It occasionally visits other out-of-work concepts, like moral norm (among friends its just plain old norm), class and, the most recent casualty, democracy.

Too soon, perhaps, to nominate an online discussion as Talkfest of the Week. But so far, this one has my vote.

Thanks for the tip, Scott McLemee at Quick Study.

Posted by Joshua Glenn at 12:40 PM

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