If you're wondering why I decided to title my blog "The Obligatory," you should stop and dedicate some mental energies to something else.
But if you're still thinking about it, let me explain:
One--This blog is a requirement for a class I am taking at St. Louis University, a prestigious Jesuit university with an 72% acceptance rate and questionable diversity statistics. Ahem, besides the point, but that is the first reason for the title because this blog is Obligatory.
Two--You've probably noticed that "The Obligatory," in and of itself, describes nothing and is therefore grammatically retarded. "Obligatory" is an adjective that needs to describe a noun...but "The Obligatory Blog" sounds whiny, and "The Obligation" sounds like the kicker on every painfully endured episode of 7th Heaven. Or just plain creepy--no one likes obligations, they usually are obligations because human nature or general laziness would require us to do the exact opposite.
I fall into the general laziness category...and while I enjoy reading blogs, I can never get into writing one. I guess I'll have to.
Also, I don't care much for grammar on the Internet, too much work...I will throw in commas when I want too. I'm in college, I use semi-colons just to show how much of an elitist I am.
Oh, and I apologize to anyone with fond memories of 7th Heaven. Everyone has different tastes, different perspectives, I just never enjoyed the torture that was Protestant social conservatism and a fitting portrait of the hard, hard life of your average white family, with all the challenges they face on a day to day basis. I would go over them, but doing so would make me feel pathetic for having ever complained about a single thing, including this blog.
But complaining is great, it an be comedic.
I'm going to stop rambling.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Steven, your introduction blog entry is quite hysterical. I commend you on all fronts. A few times during your outlandish display I found myself laughing out loud. For the sake of argument, I will attack and agree on a few of your points; also, for the sake of this class. But first, I do not want you to think that I am analyzing your writing by any certain extent. I would assume this blog took no more than twenty minutes to whip out, and I assure you that I will do the same.
ReplyDeleteI like your usage of a few comedic techniques in your writing. It reminded me of our second week of class when we viewed Eddie Izzard’s stand-up. Most of us in the room found ourselves laughing at his harassment of American culture, and it was not until after the video did we find out why. Jan pointed out the theory that people with similar backgrounds in an audience can laugh at themselves. That can be broken down into the example of Eddie’s comedy. He attacked some basic principles of American society, and it was funny to his American audience because it is true. You might be asking yourself, how does this connect to your blog? Or why is this kid over-analyzing my writing? Well, I wanted to make it clear the basis for my vocalized laughter. The simple portion of your blog concerning semi-colons struck me to the heart. That whole paragraph suggested our college education. Maybe you did not intend it that way, but the way I read it is that you do not know when the hell to use a semi-colon, for that matter, a comma. In conclusion to my 300 word babble, grammar issues are a similarity most of us college students can relate to. Whether it’s Eddie Izzard’s hit on Americans or your distinct hatred for grammar, everyone in our 404 class can not only relate, but laugh.
A word or two about grammar and humor, since you guys brought it up. Why does George Washington's Harris's dust-up grammar make us laugh, and the fragments, comma splices, and other grammatical mistakes only make us tired? Or cranky? Does your post imply that grammar has no place on the web or in comedy?
ReplyDeleteHarris's dialect and grammatical "error" is systematic and has "rules" of its own which it follows most of the time...thus it is working within a system (see Davis in Laughing Matters) and then inverting the system as he returns to narrator stance (the frame at the beginning and end of the story). Perhaps you can laugh about commas because you've confronted that dragon and slain it?