Sharing the spotlight , then stealing it back for myself

So, our assignment is to find a blog of another Monmouth student. Being that choosing another person in class was out of the question, I went with a friend who I knew had a blog, and kept it updated frequently without (gasp) having to do it because of a class assignment.

Then it got me thinking (::enter free rant post::).

Wes's Inner Voice (that sounds oddly like Love Connection's Scott Woolery) : Hey , Wes...

Wes (which appropriately sounds like me): Yeah?

WIV : Why are people who do things differently who aren't already established figures of public notoriety ever awknowledged for being interesting, free-spirited, out-of-the-box thinkers?

WES : A very interesting thought, Inner Voice. I think it's because society today values creativity a lot less when it's safer to conform and digest what they already know. It's clear that the unique never gain full acceptance by the generalized public until someone can either market it and sell it back at a gain, or until some glittering so called purveyor of whatever it is deem it trendy or quasi stylish at the moment.

WIV : Wow, that was a mouthful.

WES : Yeah, I know. I've been sitting on that for awhile now.

WIV : Now what do you mean by "glittering"? Do you mean the perceived attitude emanating off these people, the "it's not cool until I say it is or it goes out of style" type deal?

WES : Exactaly. Kind of like those people who would never read Palahniuk before Fight Club, and claimed him as a literary genius shortly after. What once grotesque and controversial transforms into "dark" and "conversational".

WIV : I gotcha. Well, I think you should get back to your audience now, and stop wasting time speaking in a satirical feigned monologue that your reader probably stopped listened to by the first line.

WES : You're right. I'll talk to you later, when it comes time to repress traumatic childhood memories and low self-esteem sentiments.

WIV : Sounds good. See you in 10.

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When I discovered that people would actually be forced to read some of my writing in class, it was like Christmas and my birthday had a love child. And they named it "Tuesday, 8:30". It gives me a chance to really voice my opinion to those who otherwise would not know it, or tell me shut up and walk away.

Then I find out that 2/3rds of our posts are assignment based: ie - find links to other sites that link to other sites, etc etc. And this made me sad. Like Christmas and my birthday just got a divorce, and poor baby "Tuesday, 8:30" has to spend weekends in a my birthday's 1-bedroom apartment on the scummy part of town. ::sigh::

And the cause of this, I suppose, is the fact that we don't want control. We don't want free reign of our creative thoughts, or opinions, or ideas. What we want, as a class, is mindless assignments (sorry, Prof. That's what blogs are for : sharing feelings) that gauge whether or not we can A) Access a site ; B) Describe what we see ; C) Rinse and repeat. Boring!

I write differently, and that's just a fact. And I don't care. I don't care if girl two seats to the right thinks I'm weird because I voice my opinion differenty. Or that guy 1 seat to the right, then moving back 3 to the left, another 2 the right, and 204 seats to the left hates determining the tone of the post (which I guess is a somewhat trying task).

But we're journalism students (atleast most of us), taking a class that's heavily based on the web, a place that certainly has much more "way out there" writers than myself. We're not lenient or accepting enough of different styles of writing. It's a simple ABC operation for the majority. Nor do we take up this opportunity to complete freedom of literary banter and ride it into the sunset. Isn't that what the internet is for: saying whatever you want with absolutely zero face-to-face human contact or embarrassment? It's type, publish, walk away. How much easier do grades have to get in this class?

Assignment #1 - Write about anything ..... 500000 points.

Does it have to be personal? No. But a part of you should be in your writing. This is the best way to establish your own personal styles; to see how it feels to try out a new pen and cut loose.

And please, person who inevitably came from 11 billion seats from the right: if you are going to comment, please login with your own blogspot ID, so I can differentiate the people idlely responding to stuff they can care less about. And, of course, it's because I want to stalk you. Duh.