The Village Beyond

Falling a Little Short with "On Winning The Blogging Pulitzer"

2008-03-10T18:50:00.002-04:00

In a year when the Bloggers Association has announced their intention to submit blogs for Pulitzer prize consideration, Carolynne Bites submits "On Winning the Blogging Pulitzer."

In Mrs. Bytes latest blog entry, our protagonist (Mrs. Bytes) finds herself having difficulty studying Using her brain and the silence as the antagonists, Mrs. Bytes follows the story paradigm at the beginning of her blog and then appears to lose her focus "in this silence."

Mrs. Bytes chooses to succumb to these obstacles and goes on to talk about her recent trip to Niagra Falls with her husband. Using the writing instruction, "show, don't tell," Mrs. Bytes posts pictures of her trip within the blog. Since photography is Mrs. Bytes favorite hobby, we forgive her for this approach and continue to read on where another picture pops up of her and her husband sitting in front of what Mrs. Bytes describes as the equivalent of a fake background that we now know is the beauty of Niagra Falls.

Mrs. Bytes is an excellent blogger. She has shown this to us many times in the past. With her quick wit and undeniable charm, as well as her ability to always choose the right word, we have come accustomed to her great blogs. However, with only five blog entries in over two months, we can see that Mrs. Bytes is still searching for that great blog that will win the Pulitzer (something she jokes about in the title of her blog entry).

She shows some of that greatness here, with her comic question of whether or not one of the photos she posts should be put on a cheesy Niagra Falls key chain or mug. She also makes us laugh with the comment about not having a heart-shaped bed during their belated Valentine's day celebration. She also shows her genius by wrapping up the blog in a way that most story tellers have too, and that is to answer the main question, does our protagonist succeed in her quest to study despite the obstacles that lie in front of her.

I will not give away the ending, but she nicely wraps things up so the reader is not left hanging.

However, what we have come to expect from Mrs. Bytes, seems to missing a bit in her latest blog. Perhaps, what's most disconcerting is her almost threatening advice, "Do not try to get inside this head, baby," when she writes about her thoughts throughout the entire piece (even putting certain thoughts in parenthesis).

In conclusion, "On Winning the Blogging Pulitzer," is a piece worth reading. If not only for the wit that shines through at times, but also for the answer to where Mrs. Bytes is attempting to go from here. There appears to be something distracting her here. It may be another blogger, or maybe her new found bitter attitude, but I am sure we will see her shine in the blogs ahead. For now, we have no problems with the nibbling she provides here on our ears, but we look forward to the bite that Mrs. Bytes usually provides us with. I am sure she will continue to live up to her promise.

Jeff Otis
- Ain't it not so cool news

Today's Quote

2007-10-07T04:15:00.000-04:00

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fear.

-Glenn Clark

Excerpts from Jack Kerouac's journals

2007-09-25T17:38:00.000-04:00

This is excellent... From The New Yorker...

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1998/06/22/1998_06_22_046_TNY_LIBRY_000015809

2007-09-25T12:48:00.001-04:00

Creativity is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God.

-Bob Moawad

An Interesting Quote

2007-09-21T19:19:00.001-04:00

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

2007-09-20T23:34:00.000-04:00

My horoscope from the Village Voice on September 20th, 2007:

AQUARIUS [Jan. 20–Feb. 18] "Dear Rob: Every night recently, I've dreamt I'm committing crimes like fraud, robbery, and embezzlement. (No murders, thank God!) It's getting so I'm not that happy about going to sleep. I feel bad about the mayhem I'm perpetrating. (Although I did have a fun car chase once.) I don't dream about the fruits of the crimes, just the criminal activities themselves. Is this something Aquarians in general are going through? I can't tell if I feel guilty about something, am psyching myself up to be an outlaw, or have just been watching too many episodes of 'Law & Order.' -On the Lam." Dear On the Lam: My guess is that your dreams (like those of many Aquarians) are prodding you to find more meaningful, productive ways to express creative rebellion in your waking life.

'Creative rebellion in your waking life.'

Fragments

2007-09-20T15:01:00.001-04:00

Looking at words differently. Seeing what's invisible. Things there and then lost forever and ever. The door is unhinged. The water faucet is turned on but no water runs. The end the beginning. The wet sheets against my cold body. Am I dead? Blood pours from buckets and buckets and buckets. Human life. The ancient mind. Glory without hope. The government without intelligence. The truth escaping their minds until there is no such thing as truth. We all watch and believe the lies. A girl walks by my window with a dog. What is a full heart? Death in Venice. Death in the suburbs. The answers are nowhere and everywhere. The horse gallops through the field. The quickie at high noon. Abuse of self and substances. Light camels blend into turkish and domestic bliss. The small body. Early human ancestors. Traverse environments. An interview with a distinct species. A significant step tentatively assigned, settled by tradition. The ANTHEM. Three adults on arched feet, their upper limbs and small craniums exposed. Populations of a single mindset. The mindset prevails. Small teeth and big brains. The findings of new evidence that steps have been taken to destroy the human past (or re-create it) - like religion.

As stated by Nabokov in an article posted in the Atlantic in the early '40s, 'I am left to grope for heart and art and start anew with clumsy tools of stone.'

Truth in Words

2007-09-18T19:03:00.000-04:00

Here is a passage written by Henry Miller in his book titled 'The Air-Conditioned Nightmare' in which he talks about the America he returned to in the mid-forties that mirrors the America we live in today...

In fact, I think I am safe in saying that the greatest periods of art have coincided with the periods of greatest misery and suffering on the part of the common people. If one quarter of American people are today living on a level of subsistence far below the norm, there remain nevertheless a hundred million who enjoy comforts and advantages unknown to men in any period of the past. What is to hinder them from revealing their talents? Or is it that our talents lie in other directions? Is it that the great goal of American manhood is to become the successful business man? Or just a "success", regardless of what form or shape, what purpose or significance, success manifests itself in and through? There is no doubt in my mind that art comes last in the things of life which preoccupy us. The young man who shows signs of becoming an artist is looked upon as a crackpot, or else as a lazy, worthless encumbrance. He has to follow his inspiration at the cost of starvation, humiliation and ridicule. He can earn a living at his calling only by producing the kind of art which he despises. If he is a painter the surest way for him to survive is to make stupid portraits of stupid people, or sell his services to the advertising monarchs who, in my opinion, have done more to ruin art than any other single factor I know of. Take the murals which adorn the walls of our public buildings - most of them belong in the realm of commercial art. Some of them, in technique and conception, are even below the aesthetic level of the Arrow collar artist. The great concern has been to please the public, a public whose taste has been vitiated by Maxfield Parrish chromos and posters concieved with only one idea, "to put it over."

Needless to say, I am a fan of Henry Miller...

One of the greatest passages he ever wrote, from the book 'The Tropic of Cancer':

"I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive."