Xavier was kind enough to respond to my response about no top 10 lists, so here I am responding again. Or something. This'll be the last one from my end.
While this is a valid point, it's completely misplaced in the world of blogging. For what is blogging if not the most narcissistic form of "bloviation"? If people consistently come to read your blog to find out your thoughts on pop culture, movies, music, etc., it would seem borderline sadistic to deny them the yearly recap with which Americans are so enamored. It is irrelevant whether everyone else on the blogosphere has a top-10 list, just like it's irrelevant whether everyone else has a 2004 Movie Preview, or a blog entry about the sexual assault allegations against Kansas State quarterback Ell Roberson. The fact that opinions on a subject are abundant does not in and of itself degrade any particular opinion, especially not those opinions which are actively sought out by our faithful blog readers.
I never intended this to become a debate on the merits (or lack thereof) of blogging. Everyone who does one of these things obtains some sort of ego gratification at the thought that people might actually read it. My point, and the one to which I adhere, is that nobody's really going to care much one way or the other if I add my voice to the infinite chorus of those who already feel the need to rank the previous year's movie offerings. People can get that anywhere, so I don't agree that it's "sadistic" to deny my visitors another one. It may be irrelevant if everyone else previews next year's movies, but the fact that fewer people do that than make year-end recaps means those happy few who read APCB might find a 2004 preview less boring than another top 10 list.
That Pete's blog has faithful readers should dispel any fears that he may have of his list disappearing into the blogosphere ether "like so much Skoal juice in a can of Bud Ice."
Going back to "valid points" in the world of blogging, validity for any individual blogger is what they want to do with their own blog. I don't like to do year-end top 10 lists, and I don't think a lot of the people who read APCB are too broken up about it.
Xavier, you couldn't be battling any more of a straw man if you had a horde of winged monkeys at your command.
Nobody has come to Pete and demanded that he post a top 10 list of any kind. Well, nobody except Justin, and he's not even a man. He's just a.... a thing that walks like one!
Pete's failure to post a top 10 list, then, isn't a matter of perversity (though he is perverse) or underexposure (he don't get out much, do he?) but just plain not wanting to. I mean, blogging is really about expressing your ideas in a medium where you control the horizontal and the vertical. Shouldn't Pete's blog therefore only contain the ideas he wants to express? Maybe Pete (gasp) doesn't have a list!!
Perhaps there's some kind of blogospheric tradition that has arisen, lo, back in the most ancient kilohours-long history of blogging, that dictates that Thou Shalt Post a Top Ten List Or Else Thou Shalt Be Cast Out, Yea Verily and Unlinked, and Thy Name Stricken From the Blogrolls, Forever and Always, with Thy Comments Deleted Via Automatic Process, In Nomine Jesu, Amen. If so, it's pretty silly, and also ripe for the mocking.
Pete! force not your mind along these unnatural channels of tabulation and comparison! Much like Nicole Richie's sexual desires for Kobe Bryant, let your Muse's outpourings be unexplained and unexplainable. The day this blog starts following a boring set-piece template is the day I take my ball and go home. And that'll be the end of all the headless lizards I leave on your doorstep too!
AFAICT, Pete anticipated that Reader X would call him 'borderline sadistic, and is therefore just bragging.
"Oh, I like it when you're borderline sadistic!"
"Then I must stop!"
And if HWRNMNBSOL takes his ball and goes home, I will whistle the Colonel Bogey March for him, while thinking of the words.
As a commentor, I have to say that bloggers are in my opinion obliged to listen to their readers and adjust their blog according to those readers' preferences. Readers are contributing their valuable time to reading the blog; and it's not the like blogger isn't asking for this contribution. If he didn't want people reading it, he wouldn't blog, would he?
So if you assume each comment reflects 10000 readers, and also count related posts on other blogs as comments for this purpose, then you're thwarting the will of ten thousand men and things by not posting a top 10 list!
How about a top 10 list of best comments, for once? Show a little gratitude!
By golly, the previous commentator is right. Accordingly, Sullivan-style, I am going to have to solicit Pete for contributions to help fund my hard work in commenting on his blog. A semi-professional comments scrivener cannot live by bread alone, you know, and every moment spent typing here is a moment that could have been spent amassing wealth or masturbating in the office restroom. So, give to the best of your ability, even if it's only $37.50. Head on over to PayPal and make your contribution, or write a check to:
HWRNMNBSOL Is a Lazy Sack
c/o Nomdeplume Industries
1500 Schickelgruber Ave
Aryan Progress, Wyoming 93040
Frankly, I am surprised I haven't see Paypal buttons on comments yet.......
| --Posted to Nail-Tinted Glasses on Jan 5, 2004 12:10 PM:. |
Banned.
Actually, if you can amass wealth while masturbating in the office restroom, you might be on to something,
Your simpering, adoring public begs--nay, GROVELS!--that you cease your sadistic deprivations and grant us a boon of your Top 10 Lists! Ah, like such sweet manna your bloviations are! Rain down upon us the succulent nectar of your catalogs both mirthful and mundane!
We humbly prostrate ourselves before you, Your Beneficenceness!