Life rarely makes sense.
Many of us lead average lives at best, caught up in the whirlwind that has been dubbed the human experience. We move from place to place, from one task to another, rarely getting the chance to sit back and reflect on our own situations. We get caught up in the small moments and fail to see the bigger picture.
We fall in love, we go to war, we laugh, we make mistakes, we have regrets, moments of triumph and moments of utter failure. We often cannot connect the dots by ourselves. We need a guide.
To get a better handle on the world we live in, we make connections to things that are not even real: books, movies and music. Yet it is in these artificial pieces of work that we find truth.
Why do we read, watch movies or listen to music? Sure, entertainment plays a part. But at some level we look to our favorite authors, directors or musicians to provide voices of sanity. Whereas we cannot always make sense of our own worlds either because we don’t have time or lack the means, they have complete control over their worlds. They play God to their characters and musical notes. Through this, we can unravel the mysteries of the most important human condition: our own.
Why do you like some books more than others? Why do you watch a select set of movies over and over again? Why do some songs play hundreds of times more on your iPod than others? The simple reason is that you made a connection to these works of art. It feels like these works are about you.
Most of us might say J.D. Salinger’s character Holden Caulfield was just like we were in high school. The music of the Beatles has probably helped more than a few of us understand the tumultuous world of love. And movies like Anchorman probably made us laugh more than we ever thought possible.
The format of this blog is going to work like this. I’ll come up with a question about anything (i.e. a relationship problem, or the intersection of cultures in a big city, or why bad things happen to good people) and try to find the answers using these voices of sanity as my guide.
In this blog, I will search out a random selection of these voices of sanity that seem to connect to what’s happening right now, either in the world or in my life. I will take passages from books, scenes from movies and lyrics from songs and try to find the truth in them. These connections will be my own and often relate to my own life, but I’ll try to make them as universal as possible.
I’ll list some of my favorite voices of sanity so you know the flavor of work I’ll mostly be dealing with. This is not by any means an all-encompassing list but rather more of the first few names that come to my mind.
Authors: Kurt Vonnegut, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Italo Calvino, Ken Kesey, Tim O’Brien.
Movies: Gladiator, A Clockwork Orange, Wedding Crashers, Stranger than Fiction, The Dark Knight, Fight Club, I Love You Man
Musicians: The Beatles, Coldplay, Muse, Interpol, Explosions in the Sky, Jackson Browne, The Killers, Radiohead.
They will provide the map and I will simply connect the dots.
-McMurphy
She describes herself as a geeky girl who loves books, movies and music, among other things. Her posts are random and all over the place, but that’s part of the draw, isn’t it? Her posts are driven by her everyday life, and she sometimes makes connections to these moments through the books, music and movies that she is constantly exploring.
Avada does a lot of her own fiction writing based on true happenings from her life. One in particular that struck me was called
“Escape,” about a boy who fails to meet his mother’s expectations. Writing on my own was not something I was thinking about partaking in, but Avada’s work still has value for me. Her writing is clear and moves the reader along. Her stories are interesting. I’d like to capture the same style when I write to my readers, even though I won’t be writing fiction like she sometimes does.
Something refreshing about Avada’s blog is that she seems open to new ideas. She said she was never really into romantic novels, but is opened up by them after reading “The Notebook” (admittedly, this might not be the type of literature I choose to write about, but, hey, I can get sappy every once in a while).
Avada deals with her everyday life and addresses the questions that come up in the course of her experiences, such as, ‘What did we do before cell phones?’ Here is an interesting post taking place in the prehistoric age before cell phones. Avada details
getting lost while following her friends to the theater because cell phones weren’t as prevalent yet. This is what I want to do, to address life’s questions, big and small, but use examples from what I read, watch and listen to.
The blog’s Technorati rating is 12,808 but that doesn’t mean the blog is not enjoyable. Avada posts on average every few weeks with no set schedule in mind. I like that mentality. I think that reveals that she doesn’t just post to post, to spew out something for the sake of it (this is one of my biggest problems with blogging). She only posts when she has something to say, when something strikes her in life and she wants to share it. It’s like talking to a good friend. You may not call them up every second of the day, but when a particularly striking moment occurs in your life — something that moved you, surprised you, excited you — you’re calling that friend first. I feel that Avada treats her blog like that friend, which gives it greater depth.
The tone of Avada’s blog is strictly casual. She doesn’t write to try to be highbrow or make herself feel like she’s better than you. The people who post on her site talk about how they can relate to her stories, so she’s obviously making that important connection to other young people she knows. Avada’s blog may not be a specific template for my blog but it’s a good jumping off point. I will focus more on books, movies and music and how they relate to the world around us. She would sometimes review books or movies, something I’m not planning on doing. But I’m sure to be checking in with Avada for inspiration.
-McMurphy
Alan Sepinwall writes a blog reviewing TV called
"What's Alan Watching?" I analyzed his voice in two of his posts about the show "Lost," one of the best TV shows of all time.
Alan's voice is the voice of the fan. He engages his readers as if they are great friends discussing their favorite show over lunch. He accomplishes a great blog (which a crapload of people visit by the way) by presenting his ideas clearly, authoritatively and humorously.
Alan has a teaser for every blog post that is holds a reference to the episode he is about to review:
"Though the DVD only came out today, "New Man in Charge" has been floating around the internet for weeks, and I have some thoughts on it coming up just as soon as I play a game of Connect Four..."
His little "Just as soon as I (insert show reference)" begins every blog and usually is a small reference to something that was a tidbit in the overall episode, not the main event. This gives his works a playful tone and also gives his posts authority because you know he's paying attention to the small details.
Alan will also use asterisks to mark out little digressions he wants to make. One that particularly reveals voice:
"(**) Comic book geekery digression: One of the all-time great Superman stories is Alan Moore's "For the Man Who Has Everything," where a bad guy traps Superman's mind in a fantasy where Krypton never blew up and he has a wife, kids and an ordinary life on his home planet... It's swell that a bunch of these people get to go to Heaven, and also that others (Eloise, Ben) get to hang with their loved ones in limbo for a bit longer, but some other sideways residents got screwed."
Now this may seem like nonsense to the non-Lost fanatic, but aside from the substance of this digression, let's look at the words. Right off the bat, "comic book geekery" gives you a the idea that Sepinwall's voice is the kind that is geeky but knows its geeky, which is almost endearing (because there is nothing geekier than comic books). But also focus on the words toward the end of the paragraph. The use of "swell" creates a sarcastic tone because it's a golly-gee, 1950s type of word. It creates a type of sarcasm that makes you anticipate that there is going to be a complaint somewhere following the word. Also, Alan says some of the other characters "got screwed." This adds to the sarcastic voice and also makes us think of a complaining teenager.
Here's another example of the way Alan creates a conversational voice that you would use after seeing a movie just as you're walking out of the theater:
"Seriously, how good was Matthew Fox in this episode?... He knows he's about to die, but that his life and death had meaning, and then Vincent comes to not only remind him of his whole journey on the island but to keep him from dying alone, and he looks... happy."
The "Seriously," again creates that informal tone that makes it seem like it's just you and Alan talking. And to phrase something as "how good was..." shows your own excitement and makes you part of the fan base. I also like the use of ellipsis at the end followed by the very simple word "happy." Alan doesn't use high-brow words that he doesn't have to, he just says it like it is.
Sometimes, Alan can get out of informal mode and use a big word. When referring tot he response the season finale of lost received, he calls it "vitriolic." While this removes a bit of the informal voice, add the same time it adds authority to his voice and reminds us that while he may seem like any other fan, he knows way more than us.
Still, he always brings you back to the idea that he is just as much a fan as you are. He said he enjoyed a particular bonus feature because it allowed him "to hang with Ben some more." His voice remains buddy-buddy, like these people on TV are his friends and they are there to entertain him and you. The voice Alan creates throughout his posts give him such high readability.
-McMurphy
