Out of Egypt:

the craft of fiction

Sometimes I get tempted to write parodies of other peoples' blog entries. But I don't, because that would almost as cruel as parodying other people, sort of like that kid who walks into the lunch room just as he's being impersonated, and then everyone stops and stares and it's just awkward. There's a scene in The Life Aquatic something like that.

It would be interesting to pick up another blog somewhere and start write a fictional blog. I was inspired by JB and his concept for an IM novel to wonder when the first blog novel will come out. Someone said once, I believe, that Jack Kerouac would probably not be a novelist if he were part of this generation; he would be too busy blogging. I think that's an overstatement, but I do think that the availability of the technology feeds into other trends in our culture, such as short attention spans and an inordinate focus on self.

I've been telling people lately that I'm going to take a cue from WW after reading the Lyrical Ballads. Him or Robert Browning. I'm going to start writing dramatic monologues in blank verse. That'll lend a little more credibility to my poetry. Now who can I impersonate?

Although mean-spirited parody is cruel, there is some parody that is merely good-natured flattery.

Posted by: funke at February 24, 2006 11:03 PM

I've done a couple entries as if it were a blog in the life of a fictional character. Maybe one of these days I'll invent a fictional blog just for fun.

Posted by: tabitha at February 25, 2006 2:05 PM