I know this is a bit early for this post, but my work schedule is a bit hectic this weekend, so I wanted to make sure I got this post in on time!
Lockridge's article really hit home for me. Growing up, I had a lot of journals that I would write down 'inspirational' quote in from novels, songs and movies that I thought resonated with my situation at the time (i.e. angsty pre-teen to teen, anxious to move FAR FAR AWAY from home and become a famous literary giant. Cliche, yes, but true). It seemed that all the quotes seemed to flow into the next, creating its own book.
Today, I think that Tumblr is the best example of being a commonplace. I hesitate to say Facebook, for the statuses shared seem so attention-seeking and many (even from the artsy, English people I know, myself as the prime example, hahaa) are not literature or culture based but rather a listing of what has happened that day, or a silly ancedote about something trivial. Tumblr however, is basically a photo blog(?) of many different modes of expression and hobbies being expressed.
One Tumblr I found that seems to be a modern day commonplace from the little books that the gentleman of the 17 and 1800s would carry around, displays quotes that the (moderator? author of the site? this line is blurred...) picks from books he/she is currently reading. In turn, these images of quotes can be "shared" onto subscribers' tumblrs and a new breed of literary discourse 2.0 is made.
Currently what is "trending" as quotes from this moderator are quotes from The Time Traveler's Wife, The Kite Runner, Dune and Frankenstein. I wonder what these choices in literature say about what phase of life the moderator is going through?
Here's the link to the tumblr: http://fuckyeahliteraryquotes.tumblr.com/
Here's another tumblr that's focused on quotes about love from literature pieces: http://loveandliterature.tumblr.com/
and SPOILER ALERT: A tumblr focused on the final sentences of books: http://the-final-sentence.tumblr.com/
Unfortunately, I do not have a tumblr (I'm trying to slowly get off facebook, and having my own tumblr just seems like a replacement to a communication addiction haha!) but when I peruse these tumblrs it makes me want to write down certain quotes in my book-journal and get these books asap to read!
For women around my age (early 20s) I see the commonplace being pinterest (the sharing of images, posting onto boards creating a discourse using visuals for standins on ideas) for girls around the ages of 15-19, I see tumblr as the commonplace (tumblr, when not having to deal with a specific theme, like those already mentioned above). I notice a lot of girls share images of guys they'd like to date (ie Magic Mike screenshots) clothes they'd like to have, quotes about "how strong of a woman they are" images of places they'd like to be, etc. In regards to girl identity, I don't believe that this is the best commonplace. It "reads" too much like a diary and instead of making girls empowered and independent, they come off MORE vulnerable than a woman in the 1950s that kept a 'facade' about her thoughts and they were all privately written down. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to be vulnerable, but when it plays into a society that we are trying to steer away from (female 'soft' stereotypes) then it's an issue.
Have a great weekend, all!
-Christine
Christine, I just want to babble to you about commonplace books. My exposure to commonplace books, I had no idea they were called that, came from two polar opposite friends. The first a Chilean NASA physicist who showed me his collection, which was more like John Locke's where everything was divided into categories and comprised volumes. It was typed on the computer with a spiral binding. The other friend was a young working-class girl in England who showed me her book for writing quotes and things she thought were interesting. Hers was a notebook she had sewn a cover for and tied with a ribbon. She made me one as a parting gift when I left.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the universality of commonplace books and also how they differ from diaries or journals.
I love how personalized both of your friends' books are--the sewn on cover sounds like an awesome touch! Most of my (what I call 'quote books') are compromised of mass produced journals you'd find at Barnes and Noble--but I definitely love the idea of even personalizing a commonplace book's cover to make it even more "you"!
DeleteI think both Tumblr and Pinterest are great examples of digital commonplace books. My own dissertation work actually explored MySpace as a commonplace book of sorts. What I think it interesting to think about is the many roles these books can play (I think this gets to Colleen's observations about the almost universal nature of this sort of writing). Many are work related or more intellectual in nature - sort of homemade textbooks. But I think they are interesting to think about too as we consider ways this sort of composition may help "write people into being". This is evident in the practices you see on Pinterest - ways girls in this case collect pictures of weddings, idealized mates, and clothing (usually for older, richer women than they are). To me this is what's so fascinating about commonplaces - the nature of diaries and scrapbooks and other "female" genres suggest that maybe girls take particular advantage of writing themselves into identities. I don't know - do similar venues exist for boys?
ReplyDeleteHi Jen,
DeleteYour disseration sounds like it was really fun and interesting to write! Cool idea about the Myspace commonplace!
I was wondering if there are any outlets for boys--but the boys (or rather guys in their early 20s my bad!) suggest that the only places to "create" identity would be in games like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, etc. etc. but even these identities seem to be mass produced? Or there's already an avatar set up? (I don't know guys, I was banned from playing video games growing up and never really got into it after hitting 18, so help me out!)