I'm in the process of writing a short story on the themes of Subjectivity and System in the blogosphere. I originally intended to treat it as a mini-Nanowrimo, but on reflection I've decided not to publish the story until it's finished. This is not the same situation as Nanowrimo, which was all about Quantity - 50,000 words in a month. I published my Nanowrimo effort in instalments as I went, warts (i.e. mistakes) and all. However my goal with this short story is about Quality. That is, I want to reserve the right to fix my mistakes before I publish. I will definitely publish it when it's ready, and probably in serial form, on Read/Write Web. As always, your RSS Aggregator will be the first to know ;-)
So I've decided to write and serialize a short story on Read/Write Web. I'll treat it as a mini-Nanowrimo, with me as the only participant (unless anyone else is game). I'll aim for 10,000 words in 2 weeks, which is pretty cushy compared to when I wrote 50,000 words over 4 weeks in November 2003.
The story I have in mind will be a kind of Parable for the Blogosphere. Why a short story? The themes I want to write about are better suited to Narrative than to normal weblog posts. This was also one of my motivations for Nanowrimo 2003 btw. The main theme will be Subjectivity vs System. Some of the inspirations for this are: Andrew's theory of the "blogosphere as a system" which he calls "We are Blog", which I've been following with interest and wishing he'd write more on; Erik's recent philosophizing; Paul Ford's amazing stories; my reading of Kierkegaard, which has pushed a lot of buttons for me re Individuality and Subjectivity; Cory Doctorow releasing his second novel online, which I can't wait to read; all this talk of a "new architecture for news" by the journo bloggers, which again I've been following with interest; watching The Matrix Reloaded again on DVD late last night, esp. the Architect's speech (btw check out this great analysis of The Matrix); my continuing impatience with the non-starting of The Game Neverending (mind you impatience is one of my less favourable traits); my Yawn about Orkut (but thanks heaps to the 3 people who invited me after my little sulk!); my ongoing fascination with avatars and virtual worlds; plus assorted other inspirations all playing in my mind.
Not to mention it's high time I put some effort into writing this year. I've also submitted an article proposal to Digital Web Magazine, which if accepted will give me an opportunity to write a technical non-fiction article. So the gist of this post is: I'm gettin' back into my writing.
I hope to post my first instalment of my short story this Monday, or even Sunday if all goes well.
ps if anyone has read my Nanowrimo novel (pdf), or even read portions of it, I'd very much appreciate your feedback on it. Even if you thought it was crap, please let me know either by email or in a comment. As an amateur and unpublished writer, one never knows for sure how good one's work is. So sock it to me.
I've been following Erik Benson's recent posts about his quest to find a "Big Goal" to work towards. The conversation has been very heavy, which is hardly surprising since we're talking about The Meaning of Life here :-) I recommend you go over and read the discussion for yourself, but I wanted to cross-post my latest "comment" (which seems an inadequate word for it) on Read/Write Web. Here it is:
I think the key word here is "success" and how one can measure it. It seems that we have differing definitions of "success". Here are the kind of words I would use when determining if my life is successful:
passion
happiness
fulfillment
truth (ie *my* truth)
good
meaning
original
transformation
authentic
All those things cannot be measured, or at least if they are measured are done so *subjectively*. That is, only I can measure them for myself.
Re-reading your original post and the comments, you use words such as:
right/wrong
value
system
achievement
validation
solution
grading
justify/judgment
reputation
trust
Those things are all measurable by people other than yourself. You can also measure them yourself, but your measurement will be an objective one - ie one that other people can validate or prove. Which brings us back to Reputation - this is specifically a measure of value that is dependent on what other people think of you or your work. And that is fine, but it's not how I want to define success for myself. That's what I was getting at with the Beethoven example - where I wondered if Beethoven would have been a "success" if he had been ignored by history and thus had no reputation. Beethoven would probably (but only the man himself knows) have regarded his music and his life as a success, because he followed his passion and created works of art such as the 9th Symphony that gave meaning to his life. Even if nobody had ever listened to the 9th Symphony, Beethoven would have succeeded in his personal Big Goal - by the very act of creating it. I do agree with you that if nobody listened to it, it devalues its success somewhat in the real world. But, that's precisely my point, it only devalues the success of it in *other peoples* eyes.
Don't get me wrong Erik, I think your Big Goal is very admirable and probably far more healthy than the subjective viewpoint that I am advocating for myself. It's just that I'm not sure I want to measure my own success from what other people judge my Reputation to be.
I have to add that I don't think I've got life sorted out, by any means. But this is how I see it at the moment. I'm also re-reading Kierkegaard currently, which is informing my viewpoint.
