I have just searched my frameshop for a mouse. A computer mouse, that is. My trusty Microsoft Scroll Mouse was acting strange and it was quite frustrating so I killed it.
I am a thrower, a smasher, a flinger of things. This is what, in fact, finally killed my mouse, and so in remorse and regret I immediately set out to replace it. Computer parts are all over the homestead, but I knew there were spares around and I am now back to my original 1996 Logitech which God knows how it survived my wrath.
Once again wandering away from reality and into the more exciting fantasyland of “And then…,” I wondered how true to life a weblog persona is, or for that matter, how many people we truly are in any given set of circumstances. Would you, loyal reader, have guessed that I have once purposely smashed a framed piece I was working on? Or that my kitchen wall is marred by the dent of a flung pot? These things happen only when I am alone–I am at least better behaved in public. But what secrets lie in the personality of a writer–even the most writerly writer–that hide themselves within the words?
The topology of new media (topology is the new buzz word amongst our captains of new media art and literature, so I’m just kinda throwing it in to let it roll around in my mind and off my tongue) is a layout of narrative structure as assembled and seen in that form by many different personalities. (I think.) The navigation from place to place, time to time is a part of it. The people who make it work and the people within each of them, is a navigable organizational chart as they go off in different directions to meet and meet again when appropriate, and when it progresses the story.
It’s all a giant topo map, with elevations, contours, measurements and paths.
For the more proper definitions of topology, go here or here, and oh yes, wherever else they send you via hyperlink.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
I’m so stunned that I may never recover. You, a THROWER and SMASHER?
Okay, I’m kidding. No, I wouldn’t have pegged you in such a fashion, but the revelation only adds to the depth of my online idea of you. In answer to you wider question, (speaking for myself, of course), I don’t think our onlines selves are terribly accurate, unless the objective is to become who is reflected there. If that is the goal, then I think perhaps it’s more accurate than not.
Since you played truth or dare, how about one in return? Could you imagine that I cry when kindness is directed at me? This, from someone who has spent a lifetime holding back tears, yet the thing that does me in is genuine kindness. Go figure.
p.s. I’ve thrown a pot or two in my day. Here’s another shocker. I once received a gift that I found ghastly (a ceramic dog made to look devlish and evil). In public, I fawned and thanked them generously. Then I promptly dropped it “accidentally on purpose” on my way out to the car with it. Let’s just say I was determined that the hideous thing was never going to live in my house. I surprised even myself that day, but all these years later, I’m still glad I did it. So go ahead, whack a mouse. It probably needed to be dead anyway.