With a blog title like The Literary Saloon, the reader instantly has flashes of ornate oriental rugs lining a cramped wood paneled room that is wallpapered with books. There are a few chairs, faded from the years of bright discussions. Yet, The Literary Saloon lacks that intelligensia aura in lieu of a somewhat austere backdrop, minimalistic headings, and drab text. I am not calling for an explosion in an art factory by any means, but the lack of visual merit dissolves any essential blogging authority that derives itself from the interesting posts. M.A. Orthofer, who describes himself as the “barkeep” of the blog which he started in 2002. Obviously this blog has the stamina to propel itself into another decade, but if Orthofer has deemed himself the barkeep, his local watering hole unfortuantely loses its glamorous speakeasy feel.
Visuals aside, the literary content is superb with posts ranging from Chinese censorship, Ian McEwan winning Jerusalem’s book prize at the Jerusalem International Book Fair, and reviews of the tv series Any Human Heart, which aired on PBS- clearly Orthofer fosters the literary saloon as a cultural nucleus. As Dean illustrates,”…the new technological forms and practices emerging around and from blogging indicate the spread and morphing of drives to connect and express”. Rather than have his blog facilitate as a vanity project in which Orthofer inadvertantly paints himself as banal to the reader, Orthofer astutely posts cultural interests that intice the reader to scroll down. And even better, the posts are succinct and done so on a daily basis, excluding holidays. The reader does not have to sift through wordy layers to get at the core value of his blog, which is plain and simple: “opinionated commentary on literary matters”.
Orthofer maintains a strong grasp on blogging authority due to his poignant posts and lack of trite, unneeded fluff; however, in order to garner an even stronger grasp on his blogging power, it would be benefical to make the blog more visually seductive to the reader.
Next up on the docket is the Emerging Writers Network or EWN ( hey all writers love an acronyme). What struck me the most about this particular blog was how its sole mission was to connect up and coming writers to a potentially larger audience. This absolutely epitomizes Dean’s notion of connectivity and self-expression and how both of these traits bolster the argument that blogs are not dead whatsoever. Even people just browsing can join this network (it is not literary exclusive, thus underscoring its importance to connect writers to a larger audience). Not only that but the EWN is very aesthetically pleasing and encourages the reader to explore the blog instead of rapidly scroll down and click out of the web page. Just based on the fact that this blog is visually pleasing and extremely accessible to readers, EWN emerges on top of the blogging hegemonies foodchain.
Bear in mind that according to Dean, most blogs exist as separate islands with any development occuring independently of its cyber surroundings. Yet, EWN strives to bridge these islands into a solid network for writers to engage with their audiences and for audiences to access a writer. Word of mouth still produces a lot of interest for a writer, but the EWN blog acts as a megaphone in which more people can “hear” about a particular writer and thus, that writer garners even more attention and wider publication. Technology as a result is not stifling print but bolstering its production. Another great aspect to EWN is the extensive list of literary journals within the blogroll, which in turn piques even more interest in published and publishing writers and helps further their publishing development.
Lastly, if there ever was a literary blog center, The Reading Experience would fit the bill quite nicely. Stashed full of literay blog rolls, publishing reviews, independent presses and review, and the like along with posts such as those that touch onto the annoyance of inserting actual people into fictionalized stories. While not quite as visually enticing as EWN but having a leg up on The Literary Saloon, The Reading Experience is a blog that the reader wants to explore rather than back away into cyber space and search for another literary blog. The focal point of The Reading Experience which was established by Daniel Green was to highlight literacy criticism, in a way formulate a relationship between the critic and the reader as opposed to the writer and the reader of the previous blog. Both of these blogs depict Dean’s argument of the blog’s ability to connect and express rather than serve as sentimental vehicles for the blogger’s vanity. This blog ultimately fosters connectivity between the reader and the writer as well from “the reading experience”; this illustrates how blogging can connect a critique (by extension of the critic) of a particular writer to the reader and back again to the writer, instead of the three being three separate entities.
In terms of blogging authority in relations to connectivity, The Reading Experience exhibits the full relationship of reader to critic to writer and illustrates how these three entities so to speak are hardly separate from one another. All three of these blogs wield a great deal of bloging authority not only in regards to how they enable the basic connection of the cyber reader to a particular blog but they also foster an environment of expression. Dean focuses upon how blogs garner their authority and those form their hegemonic structures from the “reflexive circuit of drive” in that viewers to a blog will want to visit that particluar blog if it fosters an enviornment of connectivity and expression. The Reading Experience, EWN, and The Literary Saloon all express the necessary blogging authority, with a hegemonic structure of EWN being on top with the most authority ( in accordance to visual aspects alongs with the actual posts), The Reading Experience vying for second, and The Literary Saloon coming in last mostly because of how the visual aspect is rendered even thought the succinct posts are much appreciated.
