Blogged any good books lately? makeoutcity has.
Jay McCarthy has been
blogging his reading of Dante’s Divine Comedy, * using the quotes-plus-notes that make him such a good guide to blogworld.
Then I started thinking–what if Dante rather than Jay were the blogger?
The Pepys’ Diary blog shows how a blog format can add value–even when you just reproduce a text and add hyperlinked notes.
But why stop there? Why can’t you “study” a favorite novel by writing a blog for each character? Why can’t you write a blog-novel where characters in a Live-Journal-like community interact? Or a role-playing game, where different players create fictional blogs that take turns talking about who did what to whom?
Anyway, I like the idea of re-imagining Dante as a non-professional blogger-like journalist who gives an extended account of extended adventures.** (Note, if you take up this project–lose the terza rima!)
In my work life I skim a lot of blogs using RSS*+*. I also find value in reading that asks my commitment, time, and thought.
Guess I’ll stop writing this now and go do some of it!
* You can visit more authors with Jay in his category “Books.” And Lisa Williams of Cadence90 has links to even more good books in her “Nightstand” over at del.icio.us.
** A modern non-fiction example: Susan Kitchens blogging of the Mars landing (thanks to Dave Winer for the link.)
*+* Excellent explanation of the merits of RSS for fast reading by Robert Scoble.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Elayne Riggs // Jan 5, 2004 at 7:10 am
“Why can’t you write a blog-novel where characters in a Live-Journal-like community interact?” I dunno, sounds an awful lot like fanfic to me.
2 Betsy Devine // Jan 5, 2004 at 1:06 pm
I was thinking of a novel where the author invents a bunch of characters and shows us how they interact–so if fanfic is an awful lot like that, then yes it is.