E. Durieu, 1854
yesterday and just today- I was trying to catch up with some of my favorite blogs. I save some for the weekend when I am not distracted or if I am busy during the week and can not fit them all in. I read many and I read much. When I leave a comment on a post I always- almost-request to receive follow up comments from other readers or the post's author elevating the post. Imagine my delight to find a comment about me on a favorite blog of mine-then only to be saddened by the comment that I was a bit harsh.
Me? I am accustom to the occasional rap on the wrist in my own yard-keeps me on my toes, but to find a rap out and about in the neighborhood -wounded me deeply, scrapped knees at the least.
I have been called many things- witty, foolish, aloof, sarcastic-
Is that the same as harsh?
Is harsh the same as hard? I hope Not-because I do not like harsh-it suggests a lack of feeling, while hard suggests a certain strength.
Oh yes-I forgot, what about opinionated? Definitely, I have been called that- always-even as a child.
So- from there,
without further adieu , I share an opinion, Mine.
excerpted from a previous post
I think the biggest problem with the BLOGOSPHERE MANTRA is one of live and let live. There are different blogs, there is something for everyone-that is true.
As in life- we all select different friends, clothes, lifestyles- taste vs. ostentation, tacky vs. tastes.
As in life- we all select different friends, clothes, lifestyles- taste vs. ostentation, tacky vs. tastes.
Designers have always sought to find an exclusive clientele by giving them something not everyone else can give them. Rendering up a beautiful room that has not been filled to the gills with stuff-stuffed into it, mediocre furniture and trendy fabrics will be a designer's calling card.
If that is what a client is seeking-don't call me.
Few bloggers will commit to separating themselves from other blogs by simply eliminating from their blog lists bloggers who repost a story from a publication and cut and paste the pictures & have heavy sponsorship on their pages. I am always looking for new & interesting original blogs to add to my blog list. If a person is writing to express themselves, educate, illuminate- they are elevating the medium they work in. I don't think for bloggers that are cutting and pasting from other web sources- story and text are in the least concerned with originality.. taking an idea from other sources should be a way of inspiring, expanding, offering something beyond a "copy."plagiarism is another expression- too harsh?
Yes, well-I did say you would learn something about me here.
Merci, Laurent here, here
At this juncture in blogging- it's the wild wild west out there
but at some point states are going to be annexed.
where will you settle?
.
I find you at times all of the above, but harsh? never, hard perhaps when needed to be and always fascinating. Please keep your unique voice.
ReplyDeleteBRAVA!
ReplyDeleteYou are never harsh. Pointed certainly. Opinionated of course, aren't we all. Are too many thin skinned? You betcha.
ReplyDeleteMy dear Gaye, you are perfect in your own way. And I have got to have the sculptures in you header.
ReplyDeleteElevating the medium you work in? This reminds me of something my voice teacher once said: "Cream rises to the top, but poop sometimes floats."
ReplyDeleteFashion is temporary, Style is Forever...words by YSL.
ReplyDeleteGaye, speak forever of the Beauty of the Animal and Plant kingdoms that have no voice.
Gaye, speak of the human and corporate injustice wrought upon the World when others are frightened.
Gaye, make us smile with your wit and elegance. Fill our mental pages with visions of PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
An Oracle...never harsh.
I hate hearing that you felt wounded - cuts me to the quick. You need to come to our house where if you don't have a strong opinion, you are out of the game - you'd fit right in!!
ReplyDeleteYou took a risk and spoke what you thought and sadly that always seems to attract pot shots.
ReplyDeleteI didn't find what you said harsh. I did find it incisive, and I agreed with you.
I would like to add a different word - kind. You have been kind to me and it made a difference.
I love to find original blogs, without lots of advertising. Sometimes it seems people are only in it for money and that makes the creativity and the content just disappear.
ReplyDeleteGaye, I think your comments were right on the mark. It takes a little work to make a blog fresh, posting after posting, and I think bloggers owe that to their audience. I am perplexed by cut-and-paste blogs that have 1000+ readers but I have concluded that there are many readers out there who simply want to look at pictures. And that's okay. It helps to know that just as there are different blogs, there are different audiences.
ReplyDeletethanks to all-this little encounter over There was a good intro to re-posting this statement about blogs. I do write straight and then often with much tongue in cheek. I expect comments to come my way when I have an opinion period. If I chide occasionally about Words like chic, and swoon, drool and omg's etc etc -it is always meant in good fun, however the underlining idea is that words are strong, have meaning and blogs get into such blogspeak- it is useless to me, if it really evokes drooling by all means, however if it about a thing-a pretty purse or some such -that doesn't quite make the drool level.
ReplyDeleteThe harsh comment about la was left on another bloggers comments page about the particular topic at hand on their blog.it was really an Anon. comment that was benign in a way however, my own choice would have been not to publish the comment. I have been sent unpleasant comments about readers that comment on my posts that I did not publish because it is pointless-if it directly targets my reader-one that has taken the time to comment-it would not subject the reader to that-I have spoken with other bloggers that feel the same way. I think we have all done this before.
Q. I think I would fit in very nicely-please hang the IT photographs in my room! I wasn't wounded-that was hyperbole on my part-though I did have thoughts about the intent-who wouldn't. xo for your invitation
Hi Gayle, I'm at my job, eating my lunchtime salad at my computer and reading LA, as is my wont. I am sorry to read about your blog contretemps. I work in an academic setting and "harsh" is in common usage among the younger set (medical students, in this case) as a generic negative, much as "sweet" is a generic positive comment. To wit: "That test was really harsh!"/ "I passed! Sweet!" So don't take it to heart, there's no way of knowing what the commenter really meant. For the record, one of the things I enjoy most about LA is that it is a sort of Readers' Digest (for lack of a less stodgy comparison) for people with taste. I love how you pull in things from all kinds of sources for your readers' delectation. And I REALLY love when you put together one of your witty pastiches, like the Little Red Riding Hood post, or when you take a single tune--"lavender"--and produce many different variation on it from many different sources. So much better than reading about peoples' sick pets or what they made for lunch (unless it was a recipe worth sharing.) You really GIVE your readers something, be it inspiration, excitation, a new way of seeing something or a suggestion for an idea to pursue. I recently received my copy of Jane Mulvagh's "Madresfield" in the mail, which I am preluding by re-reading "Brideshead Revisited." Probably neither of these would've come about without your inspiration in the Madresfield post. So, keep up the good work, and beraters be damned!
ReplyDeleteThe respect you elicit, and the generosity of consideration you extend to others are so pervasively distributed that it’s only a distinguishing compliment to the craft, itself, to confess to a feeling of injury. But it is of course the humaneness of your way which is the target of such things, and knowing this only makes your confidance obligatory. For oneself, I would thank you for this several hundredth courtesy, with envy for how even the frame you’ve built encourages happy comment.
ReplyDeleteBut I must take us both to task for the tautology of the “naked cowboy.” Observing repeated postmarkings from Palo Alto, arriving in my mother’s mailbox at her school in the East, her kindly headmistress called her into tea one day, to inquire into these persistent importunings from “this cowboy.” Things were a great deal quieter then, and in my mother’s retelling year’s later, she remembered feeling truly frightened “at the very thought” conveyed in this confrontation. An ancient suggestion of nakedness seems intrinsic to the uncouth noun; and it seems to me only dazzlingly sweet to suppose that that magic may still be there.
L