Friday, January 04, 2008

[martin scriblerus] a fine tradition

Martin Scriblerus was the name given by Pope, Swift and others to a fictional writer of satire in the 18th Century.

Emerging from the particular literary coffee house they were members of, the joke was that anyone in the group could publish a satire and use the moniker Martin Scriblerus.


From this was born the Scriblerus Club and though it was never formal and never really a club, it became associated with fine writing and with a sense of humour. It seems, even today, a fine idea for a group of modern writers, e.g. bloggers.

The idea is completely different to what people feared in the first post on ethics below. In fact, it would be a freewheeling "brand name", as the 18th Century variant was intended to be. All would be equal, there'd be no rules or admins and it would be a collective only insofar as, to be in it, that would signify that you were a quality blogger.

The ethics question would just come naturally with the territory, rather than from any regulations or rules - in fact, in the manner Tony Sharp indicated.

The idea is to create a brand name synonymous with quality and in no way to "
hand out Civility Enforced code of conduct badges to good little blogging boys and girls." That would never come into it as it would just be a collective of freewheelin' bloggers doing their own thing to the best of their ability but happy to be associated with the name.

Just as it was with Pope and Swift.


Who would decide such a thing? All members plus the readership's opinion on each blogger. It possibly wouldn't require a special site and paraphernalia and might act more like the Barbarians or I Zingari or like the current Britblog. The Baa Baa's code, by the way, is:

Membership is by invitation and the only qualifications considered when issuing an invitation are that the player's rugby is of a high enough standard and secondly that he should behave himself on and off the field.

It might be a nice combination of Brits, Americans, Canadians and others of a range of persuasions - the only criterion being good blogging.

The danger, of course, is that it could become seen as a club of high-noses and that would be nauseating to fellow bloggers but that could be solved by the simple expedient that caring for the blogosphere might be one criterion and a certain outwardlookingness as another. There's no reason members couldn't be in any other group they like.

Possibly it should have a self-destruct button too to prevent it becoming monolithic.

The question of swearbloggers comes into it. It was raised in the posts below. Speaking purely personally, I can't see the problem when it's for artistic effect but when it's just gratuitous, then it's an issue for some.

For example, in the Touch 'n Go song about Harlem, the girl who's just been mugged of her last $50 says, "F--k you." I'd suggest it was necessary in that context, especially as the whole thing's tongue in cheek. But there's a young conservative girl blogger who drops swearwords anywhere in lieu of good blogging, in an effort to impress as some sort of hard-girl, e.g. "What's that coming over the hill? Oh it's a big f--k off grey cloud."

Bloggers who come into the swearblogger category include DK, Mr. Eugenides, Reactionary Snob and Longrider among others. Clearly top bloggers who know how to provoke and there's nothing wrong with a bit of provocation now and then [I'd never do it, of course :)].

Anyway, the whole thing's just an idea only at this stage.

6 comments:

  1. Is a 'swearblogger' as self explanatory as it seems?

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Good point, Oestrebunny. It's not self-explanatory at all.

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  4. Swearblogger is a term they coined for themselves and there was a Swearbloggers' Roundup at one time.

    It was for people who like to use swearing as the primary element of the post and then build the story around that.

    The idea died a natural death.

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  5. If I were resurrecting Martin Scribblerus, I'd collate all of his efforts into a blog titled "The Organ of Martin Scribblerus."

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Comments need a moniker of your choosing before or after ... no moniker, not posted, sorry.