As I was writing Say Everything, I thought about that phrase and realized that, in the big tale of the rise of blogging, there are really two master narratives vying for our attention — two patterns of thinking into which most discussions of blogs fall.
In one, heroic rebels take on a rotting establishment. They stake out new freedoms, develop new tools, and form new communities. They “crash the gates” (the title of one blog manifesto) and retire the gatekeepers.
In master narrative number two, moronic upstarts dismantle the values of our culture and replace them with triviality and self-absorption.In master narrative number two, moronic upstarts dismantle the values of our culture and replace them with triviality and self-absorption. These bloggers provide instant gratification for themselves and leave everyone else overwhelmed and adrift….
I tried to weld together an entirely new master narrative. This version of the tale tells how the pioneers of blogging took control of their own stories and evolved a new form of writing that was native to the Web. Then, even as this thing they’d created spread to become a mass phenomenon, they found that it had slipped from their grasp, and they could not realize all of their own ambitions for it.
” Powell’s Books - PowellsBooks.BLOG - Blogs and the Master Narrative