Hypertextual Happenstance

This blog has been created to reflect upon learning to write and research this electronic medium. These posts use Jay David Bolter's _Writing Space_ as my theoretical guide to describe how I've learned to understand hypertext as the dynamic interconnection of a set of symbolic elements.

Thursday, September 30, 2004

That Bitch!

A recent discovery, no one is as candid a blogger or does a better job linking than Bitch Ph.D. I think I have too much of an ego right now to remain anonymous, although I understand her reasoning when she refers to herself as “paranoid” academic and her blog as a “a space to try to figure it out (geographic discontent means leaving your therapist behind) without having to worry about adding "indiscreet and self-sabotaging" to "lazy and disorganized" as self-descriptors.” Perhaps I should turn anonymous, but I think I have been careful to control any anger and only use initials when naming friends and posting pictures of them. Maybe when I start the job search I’ll start a separate blog—I’m sure anything that resembles conservative MLA practices will piss me off and I’ll have to let off steam somewhere!

But forget about the
explicit content (recently noticed in The Guardian), in terms of linking practices, Bitch Ph.D. takes Bolter’s comparison of hypertext to modernism and runs with it, particularly in this post when she includes links to 6 separate blogs in the first sentence! Challenging her readers to notice that each word is a separate link, and then to follow those links and come back to finish reading her lengthy post, Bolter would describe her electronic writing as “constructive” since hypertext, defined broadly, is “the dynamic interconnection of a set of symbolic elements” (38). Echoing Bolter is Dan Gillmor, author of We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People who describes blogs as post-centric rather than page-centric. However, I venture to say that they are also link-centric. Yes, Bitch Ph.D. draws readers in with her blog’s title, passionate voice and vulgar language, but what I find establishes her credibility and is more revealing is who she links to in her posts and on her blogroll.

I’m proud to say that she’s added me to “The once and future professoriate” category, which also includes Michael Bérubé!

2 Comments:

  • At 11:53 PM, Blogger bitchphd said…

    Ok, I'll bite. If I've got you on my blogroll, what's your other blog?

     
  • At 11:54 PM, Blogger bitchphd said…

    Ok, nevermind, I'm a dumbass. It's you! LOL.

    Thanks for this enormously flattering entry. You give me too much credit, but I'll gladly take it anyway.

     

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