So the Twitter experiment yielded some good results after all, though in an unexpected form. It lead me to some interesting people and their blogs, which brings me full circle in a sense since it was clicking links in certain blogs that lead me to twitter in the first place.
The most promising looking of said blogs is Baradwaj Rangan's. I was only vaguely aware of him before now as a generally respected film critic. A well deserved reputation from what I can tell so far (more on the conditional nature of this statement later). But the reason I'm excited about this particular blog is not Mr. Rangan's writing. It is in fact his reader base that is the true find. A surprisingly, nay shockingly, intelligent and articulate bunch they be. The comments section has actual civil discussions! Never in all my years on the internet have I seen this phenomenon. It goes against the grain completely.
I will admit to reading comments sections on various websites to amuse myself in general - youtube is an especially hilarious example until it gives one an headache. A seemingly favourite anecdote of Raja Sen's comes to mind about how one of his friends mentioned that they'd made enemies among the "ungrammatical" in reference to posting in the comments section of one of his reviews. That is an apt description of these spaces in general. Just add in an image of outraged denizens foaming at the mouth. That's how I picture them anyway.
The community on this particular blog, however, bucks the trend. What also delighted me was seeing that at least in two instances, the discussions in the comments deviated from the movie-related topics to go on to talking about music (general theory of music not just film music) in one case and evolutionary anthropology in the other! The latter went above my head, and so did the former to some extent, but I still couldn't stop myself from jumping in and adding my two cents. It was an old discussion so chances are no one will bother responding to it, but I still had to have my say.
In related news, I'm sick. Started with a sore throat and sniffles yesterday and went on to a full blown fever, and instead of sleeping it off like a sensible person, I decided to read all these blogs and twitter feeds and post everywhere like a trigger happy junkie. I'm being far too impulsive. In the past, I used to spend months scoping out a community before tentatively joining in. Also, thanks to the fever, I'm not thinking straight and am probably not making a whole lot of sense anywhere. I know I'm not fully comprehending what I read. Been skimming an awful lot. And that being the case, I have no business commenting. I'm probably acting like a drishti pariharam (evil-eye warding thingy) or worse.
That thought conveniently brings me to something else that was racing around my mind earlier. I think I'm combating a dangerous dichotomy in myself. One part of me wants to be brutally honest always and another worries too much about appearances. What complicates things further is that I want to want the former and detest the latter and wish it weren't so. But then again, maybe everyone faces this to some extent, on some level. See there I go again confusing myself. I need sleep.
This song aptly sums up my current state of mind, especially the lyrics "words are useless, especially sentences." Don't dismiss it because it's Madonna. It was written by Bjork and the video by Mark Romanek is pretty fitting.
The most promising looking of said blogs is Baradwaj Rangan's. I was only vaguely aware of him before now as a generally respected film critic. A well deserved reputation from what I can tell so far (more on the conditional nature of this statement later). But the reason I'm excited about this particular blog is not Mr. Rangan's writing. It is in fact his reader base that is the true find. A surprisingly, nay shockingly, intelligent and articulate bunch they be. The comments section has actual civil discussions! Never in all my years on the internet have I seen this phenomenon. It goes against the grain completely.
I will admit to reading comments sections on various websites to amuse myself in general - youtube is an especially hilarious example until it gives one an headache. A seemingly favourite anecdote of Raja Sen's comes to mind about how one of his friends mentioned that they'd made enemies among the "ungrammatical" in reference to posting in the comments section of one of his reviews. That is an apt description of these spaces in general. Just add in an image of outraged denizens foaming at the mouth. That's how I picture them anyway.
The community on this particular blog, however, bucks the trend. What also delighted me was seeing that at least in two instances, the discussions in the comments deviated from the movie-related topics to go on to talking about music (general theory of music not just film music) in one case and evolutionary anthropology in the other! The latter went above my head, and so did the former to some extent, but I still couldn't stop myself from jumping in and adding my two cents. It was an old discussion so chances are no one will bother responding to it, but I still had to have my say.
In related news, I'm sick. Started with a sore throat and sniffles yesterday and went on to a full blown fever, and instead of sleeping it off like a sensible person, I decided to read all these blogs and twitter feeds and post everywhere like a trigger happy junkie. I'm being far too impulsive. In the past, I used to spend months scoping out a community before tentatively joining in. Also, thanks to the fever, I'm not thinking straight and am probably not making a whole lot of sense anywhere. I know I'm not fully comprehending what I read. Been skimming an awful lot. And that being the case, I have no business commenting. I'm probably acting like a drishti pariharam (evil-eye warding thingy) or worse.
That thought conveniently brings me to something else that was racing around my mind earlier. I think I'm combating a dangerous dichotomy in myself. One part of me wants to be brutally honest always and another worries too much about appearances. What complicates things further is that I want to want the former and detest the latter and wish it weren't so. But then again, maybe everyone faces this to some extent, on some level. See there I go again confusing myself. I need sleep.
This song aptly sums up my current state of mind, especially the lyrics "words are useless, especially sentences." Don't dismiss it because it's Madonna. It was written by Bjork and the video by Mark Romanek is pretty fitting.
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