(no subject)

bpggle and I have been wondering in email exactly what roles historical people would have played on today's Internet. Samuel Pepys is the immediate and obvious candidate for blogger, as is Casanova, I think. bpggle says he can see Samuel Johnson as a pundit working for Slate and Cicero as a blogger, and I can see Mary Wollstonecraft (the "Vindication of the Rights of Women" person, not her "Frankenstein" daughter) as a commentator at Salon.com. Who do you guys see in what role?

And I just drew a parallel between LJ usernames and Egyptian hieroglyphics - I can't write a username without doing the whole linky-thing to it, even when uncalled-for, because it looks wrong. It ought to be bold, in blue, and with the little graphic by it, like the Egyptians surrounding royal names with cartouches.

(no subject)

For the people reading this for the manga stuff, Elin Winkler has a take on the gender issues in manga thing that's been hitting the blog world[1] in recent days[2] here.

[1] I can't use 'blogosphere' in a truly serious way yet. Like 'podcast.' But I will allow you blogosphere and podcast if it means I NEVER EVER EVER have to use the word 'Webinar' -- Signed, telophase, IT Librarian, NEVER a 'cybrarian' (ugh).

[2] Here to start with, and an agreement here, with a dissenting response here and a response to that response here. The comments on all of them are worth reading, and, I think, show how much everyone is arguing from their own personal experience. While I don't doubt the existence of the misogynist things that people say they've witnessed in anime and manga fandom in the past and still do, I've yet to experience or witness anything of that magnitude in the fandom circles I run in.

[ edit ] Fixed links and footnote numbers. :)

[ edit ] For anyone coming here from the She Was Asking For It article - I have a series of essays on manga layout and other things here.