The blogosphere is a net of fragile threads that connect to each other. Such connections are highly dynamic and are built upon small narratives which readers rely on in order to create meaning, interpret and – a more dangerous level of this process – build an image of the blogger.
However, the great majority of the posts is but a quick version of some aspect that the author allows to be seen. Why, a post is not its author! A post has a narrative voice, also known as the “authorial or writer’s voice” which dominates, for the purposes of writing. Unfortunately, most people forget this. Unfortunately, most people cannot grasp irony. Another form of misreading is just the opposite: to think that all words operate through double meanings, something that Umberto Eco calls overinterpretation (The Limits of Interpretation, 1995). Many times, double meanings do not apply and the word – filled with possibilities of meanings – is merely literal. Whenever we interpret, we are dealing with these flimsy and fantastic filaments that we call words. If misunderstandings can occur even in conversations when both sender and receiver are present, let alone in posts which will dialogue with god knows what kind of minds. People write under different circumstances and their writings are triggered by different impulses. Many times ,the author offers but a cosmetic version of the truth. Sometimes, not even a version of the truth, as Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa reminds us. Finally, the obvious: blogs are just semi-authorized versions of ourselves.
AUTOPSYCHOGRAPHY (Fernando Pessoa)
The poet is a faker
Who’s so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact.
And those who read his words
Will feel in his writing
Neither of the pains he has
But just the one they’re missing.
And so around its track
This thing called the heart winds,
A little clockwork train
To entertain our minds.
arizona-me 