Marcy Wheeler continues her acclaimed series on forerunners of blogging:
Words, Like Bricks:
"This concreteness serves one more purpose--it changes the role of the reader. And by this I don't mean that the reader can talk back to the Billmons of this world (they can, but I'll get to that later). Rather, it places the reader in a very different subject position than traditional journalism."
Stirling Newberry On Peter Ustinov writer, actor, comic:
Have a touch of pity for a wit that is no longer with us, Peter Ustinov, who has been old for as long as I can remember - has left, exit stage left. He said "I became English withotu a drop of English blood" and liked to joke that he found England the most conducive place to be a misfit in of any country in the world.
And take the poll for the Liberal Zeitgeist meter!
It's important to feel the history of words. Bloggers live in words, and not in television pictures, nor are our mantras sound bites. We need to connect with the people who lived as we live, do what we do, and feel as we feel - that words are a joy, and that words and pictures can convey the humane sense of connection that makes a living society.
This sense of the joy of words, words without boundaries, makes blogging our Rock and Roll. Just as they used to tune up the electric guitar and be able to "rock out" - so do we reve up. Instead of "The Jerks" - we have blognames, that come and go, break up and reform. To be at the story window with nothing but a submit button between you and fame - or shame - is putting it all on the line.
And that is where the life of words can take us.
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What is next, after we find this past, and connect with this present. That's the making of a future, where the rules are bent and shaped a bit to be more conducive to our way of building bridges and making a life.
It is out there, it was out there, there is truth, and we can find it.