Friday, January 26, 2007

Free writing on the internet.



I have always wondered about the role the blogs and free/unrestricted writing forums like www.poemhunter.com play in our modern lives and society . I exist on both these worlds i.e of e-blogger and the poemhunter and have been keenly following the writings posted on them and I have always reflected on their role in our modern lives .

Lets look beyond their obvious role as a source if exchange of ideas and information at very little financial cost. One of their roles which I have experienced is when I gain some confidence out of them , like recently a 24 year old lady called Diana from Romania commented nice things on one of my romantic poems . Earlier a guy called Lawrence Pertillar from Connecticut ( USA) had contacted me after he liked my poems . Before that a 40 year old lady from India who writes under the pseudonym of "Tranquil Ocean" also appreciated my works . It really makes me feel happy at times that may be I am not that useless and less abled as the rest of the world makes me feel by repeatedly pointing out my flaws almost on a daily basis.

Atleast some lady in Romania feels that I have a unique and beautiful style of writing poetry! I could atleast convey my ideas of love and romance to someone in Romania because of such facilities on the net. I could light a smile some thousand miles away.

I regularly read some of the poems posted at poemhunter and recently I read a few bizarre ones that made me sit up and take notice . One girl ( I cant remember her nationality , but she was not an Indian ) had posted a poem there which had nothing but the sentence "I hate you" written about a hundred times !!!

Recently there was a great piece of writing put up on one of my friend's blog pbhas.blogspot.com .
She is Nivedita and also happens to be my college-mate and an immensely talented and gifted lady. I should also perhaps dare to say elegant . ( I hope she doesn't read this blog. She might just murder me). But the great writing was followed by a sequence of irrelevant comments ( currently 37) and it ended up in personal attacks . Ultimately it was a complete public fiasco. I should also accept my responsibility in partly fuelling the chain of comments by writing slightly provocative stuff .

But the common link that threads together the "I hate you" poem at the poemhunter and this fiasco at the Nivedita's blog is that these unrestricted writing forums have become a venting point of this world where people find decent ways of letting out their pent up anger and frustrations. This world is today , no doubt a pressure cooker waiting to blast apart . These blogs and forums like poemhunter are doing a great service to mankind by providing nice outlets for these frustrations that let out in any other form might have caused damage to life and property .

I dread to imagine if the subtle fights that ensued in Nivedita's blog would have happened face to face! Face to face fights badly hurts relations and often embitters relations beyond repair . Its best that such things get vented out through writing poetry or blogs etc .

I fancy that the society is not far from a golden day when the husband and his wife sort out mutual understanding problems by writing poetry on such forums or by writing blogs to vent out anger.

Beyond doubts that would be a far better world to live in.








13 comments:

displayname said...

Some comments:

* I take it that the poetry bug was bitting you, hence invitting you to post this excitting writting. Or do you consider "writting", like "Siruserei", more aesthetic than the common alternative? :-) (I know it only occurs in the title, so apologies for incitting you.)

* It really makes me feel happy at times that may be I am not that useless and less abled as the rest of the world makes me feel by repeatedly pointing out my flaws almost on a daily basis.
As long as one isn't perfect (and IMHO, no will ever be), one will always have flaws, and it is not surprising, nor does it indicate uselessness, to have them pointed out. Perhaps you should take heart in the fact that there are people who care enough about you to point out flaws. A healthy attitude is to welcome criticism in all cases that aren't beyond your control. Here I am, wishing that people would more frequently point out my mistakes, even doing it to others hoping they will at least retaliate, and you are complaining about it! ;-)

* [cynical]Did you check how many others this Diana (and others) has conveyed her appreciation of? Maybe she is on a mission to spread cheer in this world, by appreciating random people's work without actually reading it.
[/cynical, not serious at all]

* You neglect to mention (except perhaps imply in the initial paragraphs) that the internet (and "impersonal communication" (?) in general) provides as much an opportunity to exchange pleasantries as it does to trade insults. (For one, it appears unlikely that you would call N an "elegant lady" to her face, and for another, it's unlikely that I would have as much patience speaking to you as I am exhibiting now ;-) )

* Regarding people "interacting" on the internet: Is this [warning: NSFW] related to what you had in mind with your "golden age"? :-)

* This idea of venting anger by writing poetry is certainly a curious one; I should try it out sometime. Now if only I can find some anger...

* I'm not qualified to judge poetry, but TBH, some of your poems aren't bad at all ;-)

*mutters about "e-blogger","fiasco", "!!!" …

Nivedita said...

@An
Many comments:
* "Recently there was a great piece of writing put up on one of my friend's blog pbhas.blogspot.com."

are you sure it is not writting?


* "But the great writing was followed by a sequence of irrelevant comments ( currently 37) and it ended up in personal attacks . Ultimately it was a complete public fiasco. "

*first of all it was a pathetic post.My prev ones were better(irrelevant comment by me )

*public fiasco??? duh...i mean what??
* and most of the "irrelevant comments" except by notable few by "you know who" were sensible



* "I should also accept my responsibility in partly fuelling the chain of comments by writing slightly provocative stuff .
"

slightly?

*"I dread to imagine if the subtle fights that ensued in Nivedita's blog would have happened face to face! Face to face fights badly hurts relations and often embitters relations beyond repair . Its best that such things get vented out through writing poetry or blogs etc "

I generally refrain from using certain words but what the ****?
(it can also be hell btw)
* i have no other comments to make but the comment size looks very small hence I will write some random stuff
"
"
(if you delete this comment well well i will put it up as my blog post)

@s{h,}re{e,dni }va{ts,sht}ar
though you post "irrelevant" comments ,they are quite enjoyable :-D

N
(*****- I'm elegant??Thanks!)

Nivedita said...

@An
i forgot to put in the random stuff
" Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as nothing happened.-Churchill"

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
Sir Winston Churchill

Nivedita said...

ok sorry for all this but I got a little(lot) pissed off
N

displayname said...

@N:
I don't see why you should apologise, or why he would delete the comment -- after all, you are fulfilling his golden dream of people venting off frustration by posting comments on his blog instead of murdering him ;-)

Anirbit said...

First of all a million thanks for shreevatsa and nivedita for taking the pains to read this writing and commenting. ( Or should I thank blogarithm :P )

@N

Well whether it was "slight" or a "public fiasco" etc etc are all relative . I thought it was slight and I thought that it was a fiasco.

And about your quote from winston churchill : I think you have misunderstood it . Had I "hurried off as if nothing had happenned then I wouldnt have taken the pains to have written it explicitly on a blog and spent time on it.

Had I wanted to hurry off then I would have not even bothered to mention about it anymore.

And who is a fanatic here ?? I think you are the one is not letting old wounds heal ( as per your quote of churchill ).

{ Further are we confiormed of the sanity of churchill ?? Didnt he try to kill his wife by shooting rockets at her and the pilot just stopped him ?? }


I think I took a much more rational step than you , by putting up a logical analysis on the blog of the mess on your blog .


@ Shreevatsa

Well even if Diana is doing what you hypothize , whats wrong about me feeling happy about it ?

If she want to do charity , I have no problems with it.

Since I dont know whether she has read my poem or not , why should i assume the worst thst sh ehas commented blankly? You are being a pessimist.

Nivedita said...

@An

"I think I took a much more rational step than you , by putting up a logical analysis on the blog of the mess on your blog . "


you know what....what the **** after all

@s{h,}re{e,dni }va{ts,sht}ar
ha ha..right.

Anirbit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anirbit said...

@ Nivedita

I think I need to remind you that my blog was NOT about your blog or about the fiasco that ensued there. So kindly refrain from pulling in that incident in here . I only cited the incidents at your blog as an EXAMPLE.

I also need to remind you that most people have enough common sense to figure out what you imply by the four stars. So why do you want to wear this hypocritic cloak ?

Further how does it even bother you what I have analysed of your blog ?

Why do you have so low confidence in the strength of your image/writings that you need to get incited by every remark I make ?

I would request you to comment ONLY if you have anything to analyse about the MAIN ISSUE or the central theme on the blog and not to use the comments page as a venting point of your angsts in personal life.

I had reflected that such a venting at the blog is better than face-offs but I supposed that it was also understood that such a use is not what a comment page on the blog is ideally made for.

Further it is also better if you avoid using other people's public image to shoulder your gun. It speaks lowly of your self confidence.

Its unfortunate that I have to remind you of such basic facts.

Vipul Naik said...

Hi,

I would like to make a few comments.

It is a common (and unfortunate) misconception that "venting" one's personal frustrations lightens one's personal load. In fact, time and again, studies have proved this wrong -- venting one's frustrations and writing and ranting about them often leads to a compounding of the feeling of frustration. Moreover, it often makes one feel righteous about being frustrated and makes one enjoy getting frustrated.

The only way venting one's frustration could help is if one gets so tired of being frustrated that one decides that not getting frustrated may be a simpler solution to the matter and one starts looking for constructive solutions.

The habit of venting one's frustrations on a blog only helps cement the bad habit of venting frustrations.

Now coming to another point of yours -- that the discussion had on the blog could not be had face-to-face. I don't quite agree. I recall many face-to-face discussions over lunch (in Essential Caterers days) that led to interesting fights, both among students and faculty members). I recall many heated debates in the buses on the journey back. There are of course some kinds of things we can do on blogging, such as "starred out" insults.

Finally I second Shreevatsa on the point that people pointing out each other's flaws is not an indictment of one's character, unless one takes the issue as one of personal confrontation.

Vipul Naik said...

@Shreevatsa:

I can't locate any "tt" used incorrectly by Anirbit.

Has he corrected it after your comment?

Or is the "tt" a fictitious construct of your own?

If so, it's a rather "weird" thing to do considering that your comment anyway has a lot of other material in it.

Vipul

Nivedita said...

@An
Lets see who started this thing shall we??
This is called revenge btw

(If i was a little more mature I agree I should have just grimaced and gone off muttering "ebloggers,fiascos" yes..but since I'm an immature hypocrite I tend to post comments)

Atleast I dont post comments like-


"Anirbit..NEMO ... said...

blah blah....
Next time you walk up to a lady and tell her that "You are beautiful" , the lady is expected to have atleast this much of logical capacity to understand that all that is being said is a personal opinion of the speaker and not a general public opinion hailing her to be Venus reborn.

Similarly when a man claims his love to a woman , it is expected to be understood by the lady that that the person saying that is the one in love with her and is not a representative of the pageant of human civilization confessing its love for this lady through this mere mortal.

But its only unfortunate that people ten d to do such wild extrapolations and land up into inconsequential chains of thoughts/writing like on this blog comments. {The most common example being of a lady having faced "a" bad man , thinks that the whole male sex is so! }

So I hope it puts and end to this gluttonous chain of comments that has followed since my usage of the word "obvious".


Oscar Wilde ::

" Modern pictures are, no doubt, delightful to look at. At least, some of them are. But they are quite impossible to live with; they are too clever, too assertive, too intellectual. Their meaning is too OBVIOUS, and their method too clearly defined. "

1/23/2007 11:27 PM

"

and very relevant it was, considering the post was abt moving into CMI hostel ..

Anirbit said...

@ Nivedita

Okay , I am ready . Lets see who started all this.

Anyway I am pretty confident that you shall realize that the part of my comment that you have quoted was ion response to onw of the last ccomments when the fiasco at your blog had already convoluted and dilineated. It was NOT a response to your blog's central theme.

In case you have forgotten , my FIRST comment on your blog was very much to the central theme "CMI Hostels" and there was nothing out of the point.

I think it shall do your soul a lot good if you revise the history and take a look back .

You shall find " flash upon the inward eye " when in a "pensive mood"

{ I think I need not acknowledge whom I have quoted since its a pretty well known phrase }