Tonight’s episode of House was of interest to bloggers: the patient of the week is a “raw” blogger who believes that sharing the intimate details (well, most of them, BMs excluded it seems), of her life is a way to form connections. Her boyfriend gets that, but also accuses her of forgetting the original reason she started her (somewhat?) popular blog: he claims, in the heat of an argument, that she is more into the performance before her “fans” than any connection she wanted to form.
My response was instantaneous and ahead of any rational thought: d’uh! Of course. Of course blogging is about performance as much as it is about connection.
Isn’t it?
From the Mixed Up Bloggings of Annie Em 
D’uh! I’m a commenter fangirl!
um, does BMs mean “bowel movements” cuz, uh, yeah, TMI.
That’s certainly why I started mine, but the connections have served me better since I did.
Ok, JC, yes, TMI: but it was on HOUSE, really;-)
And hello, Jonathan! I do agree: the connections keep me going, but the impetus for spending time on blogging, is, admittedly, partly performance art.
Yes, certainly!
On my blog I perform a far more thoughtful, reflective, intelligent, and interesting version of myself. In fact, since I am generally none of those things — an entirely different version of myself.
But (as I suspect is true of many kinds of performance): I find that I actually do become a slightly better version of myself, through the performance. Know what I mean?
BS Girl, I do so know exactly what you mean: we are “ourselves upon reflection” when we blog. Whether it’s the same for the anonymous blogger and the public self blogger, I don’t know—(tho how many of the latter are “raw” bloggers do you think?).
I can’t wait till summer when I get time and space to think about this more in preparation for my autobiography class in the fall (which will, naturally, include a segment on blogs;-)
Hhmmm. This got me thinking. I could write a painfully long comment here but I won’t- too many issues regarding my desire to be anonymous coupled with a sneaking (and purely egotistical) desire to put more of “myself” out there… I’ll just say thanks for making me think about these things.
Helloooo Dr. No: how’s the bat cave?
Interesting: I’ve always wondered what happens when a comic (and I mean that as very HIGH praise) blogger wants to do a raw post once in a while? Can Dr. No do such a thing? Would that blow up the Internets?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole performance art/blogging/BM/House thing—maybe you can do a “guest” post as another anonymous blogger (Professor Ni? Dr. Python?)
Oh, I guess I just blew that idea by posting it!
The bat cave is great- needs a good power washing to remove all the cheeto dust but good.
I am intrigued by the Dr. Python concept!
Yeah, Dr. Python: for some ODD reason you remind me of Spamalot/Monte Python;)
I hope you have enough scotch to wash down those cheetos?
Very interesting. Hadn’t thought about it as performence before.
Ever since I started blogging, I’ve neglected my paper journal and am feeling some regret about it. But when I write in my paper journal, no one comments. So definitely the interaction with blog peeps is important to me…
Hi Ink
The interaction is definitely important to me, too (and thank YOU for being such a wonderfully interactive blogger!)—