Arrangement/Design as voice

So the readings for today leave something to be desired: I'll readily admit that. What I was trying to gesture, towards, though, were aspects of "style" or "voice" that go beyond how you sound. How things are ordered or disordered, how they look, how they are arranged are also ways of affecting a person who comes to your blog.

But I did want you to marvel at all the ancient rhetorical figures for order. And if we take a cue from Ulmer, who uses lots of analogies to prompt invention, we might also be able to use some of these figures to prompt invention. What if we think about one or another of those figures not as a way to order text, but to order a page? Or what if we do use one of the figures to come up with a kind of blog entry that isn't like one of the "seven basic formats"?

Above all, though, the goal for today is to think in terms of design. Most everyone (including me) has a standard blogger template. A couple of you have altered that design a bit. How could you alter your design, both of the page and of the daily experience of your blog?

What kind of "voice" does your design--both your page design and the accumulation of your blog entries--bespeak?

My voice

One thing I've never had a problem with is finding my voice. I've always known what my opinions are, and how to say them. I think that is my most powerful attribute in writing, and pretty much carries all the weight of my blog. I love this class because so much of it is about voice. I really feel like it's the one class where I do have a voice. My other classes are pretty boring and most of the things I say in class or write about really lack any motivation other than to churn out another paper or get a good participation grade. It's just that I don't care. I don't care about Byron or Melville, or Patrarchan sonnets. I try to bring my own voice into those other classes, but it usually comes off stale and totally forced. This class is the ultimate outlet for a free voice.

Voice

Toby, at DivaMarketing, says:

Sometimes when I come across a new blog, I click on very first post and read a few of the beginning writings. Then I'll skip back up to the current level. It helps give me a sense of the person.

You've now been blogging for about six weeks (as part of this course). Try this experiment on yourself. (And plan to try it again at the end of the semester.) Anything interesting to note?

When I do this comparison on my own blog, I notice not so much a change in my written "voice," but I do notice what Toby might call "growth" in what I do. I've used a lot of visuals, lately, for example. I'd also like to think I've got some "texture" in my blog, that I don't always do the same thing, that the blog as a whole is a sum of at least a few parts, not just the same old thing stacked up.

What *is* voice, anyway? When we say we like the "voice" of a given blog, what are we talking about? Can you give examples?

And would anyone argue that it could be possible to have an interesting, highly readable blog that doesn't have what we conventionally think of as "voice"?

Is wabi-sabi about voice, for example?

Rod Padgett, a poet, has a somewhat satirical poem called "Voice." Another contemporary poet, Bruce Covey, has this to say about the poem and about the concept of voice:

I think the idea of a singular “voice” is something that many poets try to achieve, something that’s taught in many graduate writing programs. My feeling is that a poem is so many things—a visual, rhythmic, structured text invested with some sort of intention—that voice seems like a rather arbitrary quality to make absolute or constant. I prefer a more elaborate matrix in which form and content, visual and oral, are always interrelated and dependent upon one other. I’m not sure how I could—or why I would—write in a single voice all of the time. I applaud those who wish to and do. I’m a fan of Ron Padgett’s poem “Voice,” which ends, “I hope I never find mine. I / wish to remain a phony the rest of my life.” That said, I do believe my poems are united in different ways, particularly within each book.

Can/should a blog have voices rather than voice?

[And I also want to explore this theme today: Close Encounters. More on that in class.]

Assignment for Thursday

I've been delayed (and am continuing to be delayed) in getting the new schedule online. So, for now, let me at least get up here what I've asked you to do for Thursday (which I mentioned in class yesterday):

Thurs., March 9: Blogging as invention space
Please read/view these before today’s class:
• From Gregory Ulmer, Internet Invention
EmerAgency
The Image of Wide Scope
Epiphany
The Process of Felt Making
Haiku Reason
Haiku Design
Wabi-sabi

Also before class: Begin a blog entry that does something with one of these webpages (ie, uses it as inspiration, as model, as jumping off point, as something to comment on, etc.)

Blogs-in-the-news presentation: Andrea Fridley

My midterm post

The blog post of which I am most proud from my blog, The Hamster's Wheel, is "It's my religion, not my lifestyle." I think it's my best work because I really wanted to write it, not just fulfill the posting assignment. It was something I wanted to deliver to the class and I was so pleased with the response I got.
I also like my last post, "Relating to Peanuts" I must admit, it's not as profound as religion, (which I shamefully admit I take pretty lightly as well) and the whole post is kind of silly, but I like it. It's not as bloggish as I would like, but I kind of felt like I didn't need all the links and extra help to convey my message. Overall, it's something that I thought about, but it related well with other people, which is what my goal was in the first place.

Of my classmates posts, I thought Amy's Teens and Blogging was great, and she actually engaged the class in her presentation. I think all of her posts are inciteful on In the Margins, and she's got great writing skills. She makes good use of links, which is great because I start by reading her posts, and the next thing I know I've just taken a long journey of links and I've learned so much all from starting out at her blog. I recommend it.
I also think Hannel's post Blogging/bleeding post was really good. It really put into intelligent words how I felt about the whole teens and blogging issue, without my non-sensical rantings that I often soap-box on my own blog. I like Hannel's blog, a melange, she sounds super smart.

Anything from Chronicle of a Book Retold is literary genious and REAL blogging, and Tanner's got a good one going with My First Attempt.

blogging/bleeding

Let's take a moment to throw scholarly reason and approved logic out the window. And while your at it, invite the self-centered, naive and socially awkward teenager inside you to come out and play.

Done?

Now, let's talk - as Facebook, AIM, Blogger, MySpace, Xanga users - a little about the Internet and personal expression.

I'm aware that there are safety and professional image issues when addressing this topic, but those aren't on my docket. We've all heard about MU's Facebook task force and of stalkers that track children down through instant messenges or MySpace. But I'm going to pooh-pooh all that for now.

Because I think young America's obsession with online expression is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Instead of condemning the sometimes socially blasphemous, often rebellious content of Internet communication and communities, people should be celebrating that there is content at all. Think about this: young people are sitting down and writing. They've found - I've found - an outlet that suits their contemporary, technology-savvy generation. Blogging in any form and on any topic exercises teens' and young adults' minds educationally and emotionally. I wish people in power would give kids a break, get over themselves and stop being threatened by the things that go against the status quo.

On a side note, I think blogging as an emotional outlet is particularly important for teens. I once read that writing is like sitting down at a typewriter, opening up a vein and letting yourself bleed onto the paper. Don't know about you, but I'd rather have teens bleed out through blogging than their wrists.

And that's where I stand. You can let reason and evidence back in now, if you want. Cheers.

crossposted from a melange

Reflective assignment for Tuesday

Because we are now at midterm (and at the end of another unit), it seems like a good time to assess where you are and where we as a class are. With that in mind, I would like to ask you to complete the following set of reflective activities before class on Tuesday (the 7th):

(1) Which one or two of your own blog entries do you most like or find most "blog-like"? Write a paragraph or so in which you talk about the features of this entry (or these entries) that caused you to select it.

(2) Now do the same for two or three of your fellow class members' blogs.

(3) Post the above paragraphs to either your own or the class blog, with links to the appropriate entries.

(4) In an email message to me, evaluate where you think you stand in relation to the course requirements, which I'm copying from the syllabus. As you'll recall, we agreed in class that meeting these requirements would constitute a B.

• Maintain an individual blog and write substantial entries at least three times weekly, beginning no later than week 3 (40%)
• Contribute at least one entry per week to the class “mother blog,” where the focus will be on metablogging (10%)
• Contribute generative comments to class blog and to class members’ individual blogs: aim for at least two comments per week on class blog and at least one comment every other week on class members’ blog (20%)
• Give two 10-15 oral presentations to class: (1) how-to presentation to enhance blogging, and (2) discussion-prompter on blogs in the news (10%)
• Create an electronic portfolio at the end of the semester to highlight your best blogging (20%)
  

(5) In that same email message, tell me what I could do to make the class more helpful for you, what you already find helpful, and what questions/concerns you have.