silly

I noticed in my Statcounter that several readers had come from Norwegianity, one of the other Koufax finalists in the Most Deserving of Wider Recognition category. I suppose it's meant to be a humourous post; not really my brand of humour, but that's not important.

Reading that post, I realized I hadn't looked at the other finalists in this category. Truth be told, I'm not a big reader of blogs. I read a lot: hard news with as little commentary as possible, well constructed leftist essays, novels, history, political thought - but not a whole lot of blogs.

So I used Norwegianity's post as an impetus to look at all the finalists in this category, and I suddenly thought, This is ridiculous. The whole idea of a blog competition is ridiculous.

Not that the Koufaxes are ridiculous. The good folks at Wampum work hard to introduce more of the lefty blogosphere to each other, and they do an excellent job. (I have a problem with blog fundraising drives, but that's a post for another day, coming soon.) Wampum frequently says that the point of the Koufaxes is to build community, and that is always a worthwhile endeavor. So I mean no disrespect to Wampum or the Koufax Awards in any way.

But I looked at all the Blogs Deserving of Wider Recognition finalists, and they're all so different. Each blogger has a different writing style, a different emphasis on graphics, a different vision of what their blog means. They're all worthwhile, and they're all very different, and what appeals to me may not appeal to you, and vise versa. One thing is obvious: they all deserve a huge crop of devoted readers.

If you know me at all, you know I'm not saying this because I'm not going to win, so I'm trying to devalue the race. It just struck me as silly. And while as a writer I'm very pleased to garner any new readers, as an organizer and an activist, I know it's not important. All that matters is that we read, stay informed, and take action whenever we can. Educate ourselves, and try to educate others. That's all any of us can do.

So if you've voted for wmtc, I thank you. But really, I'd much rather you send twenty bucks to NNAF or NARAL than vote for me 1,000 times.

P.S. The best thing I saw at Norwegianity is that today is Simone Signoret's birthday. I've always imagined I'm related to her.

Comments

  1. Wrye25 March 2006 at 20:51

    you know I'm not saying this because I'm not going to win...

    Not at all. You're saying it because nature intended you to be a Canadian. This is the sort of thing Canadians say all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. laura k26 March 2006 at 05:21

    You're saying it because nature intended you to be a Canadian. This is the sort of thing Canadians say all the time.

    Yeah? Wow. Too cool.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gunta26 March 2006 at 15:21

    Well, I'm grateful to the Koufax because they've introduced me to several blogs it looks like I might enjoy checking out. Yours might just top the list.

    As you noted, there may be a wide variety of styles, but isn't that the beauty of it? Something to appeal to virtually everyone? The only folks who might be bummed out by the "contest" are those who see it as a popularity contest and somehow feel slighted if they don't win.

    Wouldn't you say that everyone wins if they either find another interesting blog to read, or find new readers?

    ReplyDelete
  4. laura k26 March 2006 at 15:39

    As you noted, there may be a wide variety of styles, but isn't that the beauty of it?

    Absolutely. That's partly my point.

    Wouldn't you say that everyone wins if they either find another interesting blog to read, or find new readers?

    I would - and I do. :)

    What I'm finding silly is the narrowing down of the list to one per category, when really, it's so subjective, and a function of so many changing variables. Like literary prizes - any of the books on the short list are likely to be excellent.

    ReplyDelete
  5. laura k26 March 2006 at 15:40

    Oh and gbbug, thank you. :)

    ReplyDelete

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