In Harris’ view books, movies, plays, songs, paintings, sculptures, photographs, cartoons, videos, billboards, advertisements, web pages, as well as objects hold some type of meaning to their users. However he also says not everything is a ‘text.’ “Texts refer to object that can be shelved, filed, or stored, and then retrieved and reexamined” (Harris 11). So I can see how what Harris says is very relatable to Sullivan they both agree that their main mode of writing, is something that can be looked back on and examined. Harris also goes so far as bringing up Jorge Luis Borges who decided to rewrite a chapter in the classic “Don Quixote.” I’d say blogging is very similar to modernizing a classic novel. I think Sullivan had to be original with his bloggings—more honest just like Borges probably had to be while rewriting. “Of course, the idea of coming to terms also emphasizes that we are dealing here with words, with connecting your language to that of the texts you are reading. Such work involves a dialectic between paraphrase and quotation” (Harris 15). I think this part of Harris’ argument for writing is what got me to connect it to blogging. It seems to me that blogging is a rather freeform type of expression. At the same time though it must also be truthful to whatever the blog is about. While reading Sullivan when he talks about writing about 9/11 there was complete connection between what was going on and the language that he used to describe it. I can’t say I 100% agree that blogging is a real source of valuable writing but I do believe it has something very honest and important to express.
No comments:
Post a Comment