A
story I liked in Salon. Would in any way a weblog form have made that story better ?
So far, the
strong points of weblog I have found are:
- the inherent flashback. A reader can pick up a story today, read it forward, or backward.(and a time machine story seems the obvious candidate, although altering the past would only work for the daily reader, not the occasional one
- the daily/weekly frequency and the more or less obvious diary form
- the web and the possibility to link
- the direct tone
So obvious genres that could benefit from a weblog form are biographies like
Zelig with real or created webpages to add a bit of credibility. (another good candidate for that is a
paranoid story based on real fact.)
Of course, the
serial seems well adapted too: the genre has already the frenetic frequency and the ingredients (cliffhanger, never-ending story, repetition of the same storyline). Although I'm not sure the diary is such a good medium for a straight serial. But the
Daily Exploit of Supperman sounds like a wonderful title for a semi-parodical weblog
Last, the
Soap opera could also be a good candidate for a weblog genre. A lot of character, each with his own weblog and a public conversation between all of them. Like
Silicon Valley central.
Of course, melting genres, like the fake bio of a nerd in Silicon Valley interacting with the real other weblogs can be interesting. The question is then how far should the author go to make it real (far as in email forgery, simulated post on public tribune to make the person real, fake webcam shots).
