An NYT piece on the suburban blogosphere. In a class once, poet Priscilla Uppal commented on the stunning lack of literature from the suburbs; how odd, she said, that the place where so many of us live(d) and grew up was only to be found in art when it was being condemned. So if the Web is a new platform that ‘allows previously silenced voices to speak’, then it is perhaps unsurprising that these perspectives are starting to bubble up. ‘Course, whenever you mention ‘speaking’, the standard ‘lefty grad school’ reaction is to mention its partner ‘hearing’. The cynical response to the democratising power of the ‘net is that unless you speak in accordance with the structures of power, in both a language and ideology that other people recognise as ‘right and proper’, you are doomed to remain powerless. What this perspective often misses is the capacity of the Web to produce ideological communities that are consciously resistant to the mainstream or dominant mechanism of power (maleness, whiteness, straightness etc). That may not necessarily translate into political power – but finding community is certainly a start (and, as this New Yorker piece argues, competition between small lobby groups may actually constitute the political process)

More fun trivia: The Top 10 Literary Virgins. Yeats was ‘virtually celibate until his thirties’ (so I guess he was the rough slouching beast?) and E.M. Forster had finished all his major work before he, er, got some in his late-thirties. This winter, when I will inevitably be sitting at home writing alone on a Saturday night, I’m gonna’ remember this and hope that it keeps me warm.

There’s nothing overly special to this article about using video games to help kids ‘fight their cancer’. But I like the metaphor. Video games are arenas within which to produce narratives and produce provisional identities. In this case, the child envisions moving into themselves by going ‘ through the screen’ to project a fiction of eradicating their terminal illness. So you see outward, to see inward, to imagine the impossible – and make yourself feel better in the process. Neat.

DJ Greg “Girl Talk” Gillis is planning a ‘final show’ on December 21, 2012, the final day of the Mayan calendar. Also, I can’t decide what’s more surprising – that he’s playing Lollapalooza or that Lollapalooza still exists.

The Walrus have a very funny take on a whisky tasting. Chivas Regal (blech!) tastes like “lawn mower clippings, blotter acid, honey-flavoured breakfast cereal — and oak, right? I can definitely taste the oak. If bark were a drink, this stuff right here would be it”, while Laphroaig, my favourite single malt, is described thusly: “Greek salad, souvlaki, french fries, onion rings, ketchup, root beer, Peanut Buster Parfait. Oh, wait — that’s what I had for dinner. After the first sip I barfed a little in my mouth.”

Finally, I don’t know if this picture is actually cute, ‘shopped or just something really ominous before a lot of husky blood gets spilled. Oh also, this makes me smile for warm reasons, while this pleases me for more condescending ones.