One of the earliest posts to this blog raised the (to me) disturbing possibility of the future existence of a book called The Collected Blog Posts of Joseph Harrington. Well, that frightening prospect is not as outlandish as it may first appear. Aside from the obvious growth of blogzines in recent years, there is the additional possibility for blog books. There are already examples of books that originally appeared as/on blogs - from Caleb Crain's The Wreck of the Henry Clay to Michael Magee's My Angie Dickinson.
But how many books have made use of the blog form itself - the reverse chronology, informal voice, comments, links, etc.? There's Susan Schultz' Dementia Blog, but beyond that, I come up short. I mean, sure, it's a new medium, but c'mon! How many new writers are born every minute? It's a geometrical curve, for sure, that's all I know.
This issue is of importance to me for two reasons. First, this blog is mostly about blogs. And literature. So, finding a latter that uses the former as an organizing principle is an exciting prospect. Two, I'm trying to advise an MFA student who is writing an MFA thesis en forme du blog. What should she read??
So, dear reader: Where is the BlogPo? Or Blog lit, writ large? Give me titles - or leads - anything!
Thank you for your attention.
Revised mortician vignette
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"Where's your aria this morning?" I asked the singing mortician as he
leaned out of his red car in his dull scrubs to put on his new and very
white tenni...
5 days ago
7 comments:
1.*The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry* by Wendell Berry
2.*Animal, Vegetable, Miracle* by Barbara Kingsolver
3.*Farming and The Fate of Wild Nature: Essays in Conservation-Based Agriculture* ed, Daniel Imhoff.
4.*Black Earth and Ivory Tower: New American Essays From The Farmland and the Classroom*ed, Zachary Michael Jack.
5. *All Flesh is Grass: The Pleasures and Principles of Pasture Farming* by Gene Logsdon
6. History of Farming books: e.g.
*Feeding the World: An Economic History of Farming* by Giovanni Federico, Princeton,2008.
Michael Pollan might be a good source to look at.
*
No.s 3-5 above feature google book previews
There is a blooker prize available now for the best books from blogs each year in several categories: http://www.blookerprize.com
http://www.foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/
http://farming.totalblogdirectory.com/
I always thought Ron Silliman set the standard for poetry blogs?
On the left side of Silliman's blog
(http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/)
he generously provides an extensive A-Z set of links to poets' blogs. This one is on there. You have to scroll way down. Sounds like he's even served as the poet laureate of the blogosphere.
Thanks to the first Anonymous poster for the reading list. Are (or were) any of those books blog-based? We here at Blog of Myself (by which I mean myself) are incorrigible formalists.
I'm like Ron Silliman, only with shorter posts, fewer links, and more hair. And I'm funnier. Which maybe isn't saying much.
Hey, you all should be "Anonymous 1" and "Anonymous 2." Or join forces and be "THE ANONYMAE" (or -I). Or just come out of the closet. If you're somebody I know, you can email me if you're ashamed to have your name associated with this web site (which I can understand).
None of my reading list suggestions were found via blog entries. I took a green seminar once from a Wendell Berry fan and thought of/found the rest on my own. As far as poetic formalism goes, I've met the generous Annie Finch myself but usually keep my own counsel. Her Wom-po list is great--you should recommend it
to female students.
I've been mistreated by the Department, and I'm an academic nobody anyway so prefer to keep a low profile.
http://pollan.blogs.nytimes.com/
Michael Pollan's blog--which does touch on farming matters.
Thanks for the great suggestions, all. I often have the dubious distinction of The Most Under-Read Graduate Student, but I am chipping away at that.
for Jen, I wonder if the old almanacs might not be a bloggish model, with their combination of schedules for planting and harvesting, weather stuff, and occasional wisdom lit? Or am I misremembering almanacs?
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