POP PHILOSOPHY: Kerouac sheds light on our reasons for blogging

Every Wednesday, Ryan Carey tackles a different topic relating to the contemporary pop culture scene. This week, he's taking on the blogosphere.

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POP PHILOSOPHY: Kerouac sheds light on our reasons for blogging

POSTED: Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 3:00 PM

Every Wednesday, Ryan Carey tackles a different topic relating to the contemporary pop culture scene. This week, he's taking on the blogosphere.

Philadelphia (or any city, for that matter) has no shortage of blogs discussing local things. Hell, City Paper alone has three of them. Why does a newspaper available online require blogs? What value do they add? Opinion? The paper already has an opinion section. So why the superfluous voice?

I'd like to refer you to a post from last November by Lehigh Valley beer-design blogger, The Pour Curator. On his blog, which primarily displays and discusses label/ad/tap-handle design within the craft beer industry, he informs us about a snafu by one of his favorite beer writers who railed against the blogging community for spinning our wheels with unprofessional content without the promise of getting paid. The Pour Curator then shows us this block quote, a response by top-rated beer blogger Jeff Alworth:

"Although it's not easy to define "professional" anymore, blogs are not so murky. They are unfiltered personal opinion. Whether we're talking about an anonymous knitting blogger or Paul Krugman, the nature of the blog is personal. Krugman's blog is a lot different than his column. It's pricklier and funnier, shorter and more oblique, more casual and sometimes way more technical. It is a reflection of his mind. Blogs exist because humans have to talk. We talk about the things that interest us and--if there's no editor getting in our way--in the way we want to. Long ago I came to the conclusion that a "writer" had almost nothing to do with success. A writer is a person who can't help but write. Good or bad, it's a part of the way they navigate the world."

At this point you may be realizing that in a short read, you have been informed about one man's blogged opinions and another man's blogged response, aggregated for consumption on a third blog, which was referenced to prove a point here on Critical Mass (a forth blog). The point is that, as the four of us are blogging without much profit incentive, four people have coordinated to illuminate a portion of the human phenomenon.

That's all fine and dandy, but what about that first question — all four of us have professional writing jobs that allow us to navigate the hell out of the world on some periodical. So, why the blog? Why the extra unpaid work?

Jack Kerouac (pictured) did something extraordinary with his literature that was more prophetic than he may have realized. To read On the Road is to read a book, which — in the literary sense of a complete narrative — is, pretty much garbage. That may not be a popular thing to say, but hell, this is a BLOG. On the Road is ASS. But it's only ass because it was written before blogs were popular. As a work of literary fiction, it's ass, but as something to read about another human being, it was one of the most important things ever written. Kerouac was, in some ways, the first blogger to get a publishing deal. He wrote (to borrow a phrase from Tom Waits) an "inebriational travelogue," which is not very entertaining to read. However, each cluster of sentences was an enthralling look at the motives of and relationship between a guy and his id. AND PEOPLE LOVED IT. Voyeurism is the sincerest form of journalism.

That's why the beat generation and bros like Hunter S. Thompson and Lester Bangs became popular. Not to mention music like Waits, Beck, The White Stripes, punk, emo, etc. Unpolished, and voyeuristically honest.

Blogs are the punk rock of journalism. A bit less manicured and a tad more honest — even when there's no market for what they say. Damn the man, they'll exist! Half of them start in garages and don't really see much light of day before getting abandoned. Many of them (like Critical Mass) are commissioned from existing professional writers to relate our arts and entertainment experiences in a more personal, exciting and unpredictable manner.

Or you could say we were created simply to capitalize on the positive trend of successful A&E blogs, which would make us the Sex Pistols. HEYOH!

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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