"Delay is natural to a writer. He is like a surfer—he bides his time. Waits for the perfect wave on which to ride in. He waits for the surge (of emotion? of strength? of courage?) that will carry him along." (E.B. White, The Paris Review Interviews, 1969)
"Jumping the Shark" refers to the Happy Days episode where the cliffhanger was Fonzie jumping over a shark tank. The audience had long since lost interest, and this was the signal that, indeed, the writers and producers were trying to maintain to their small audience by holding the most popular character's life hostage. "Watch our show or we might KILL the Fonz!"
Lazarillo did not jump the shark because what threatened it was the censors, and not a bored audience. On the contrary, what you describe sounds like it needed no such shark.
Blogging, on the other hand, has become so commonplace that EVEN THE UN is blogging. By definition, whenever the UN gets involved, it is a bad situation (extinction is often the only thing that attracts the UN).
How do you explain LKs declaration that jumping the shark has "jumped the shark"?
(I so did not say jumping the shark has jumped the shark, said LK.)
I think it's absolutely a valid description of certain phenomena. I simply don't see this concept being applied here and I quibble (yes, QUIBBLE) with your application of it here. Is it possible that this term derived from the entertainment industry might not be universally useful, Mr. Popular Culture? Say...perhaps not to international policy issues?
Besides, Pronk's blog is his personal webpage. It's not a UN organism (although he is/was). Pronk's blog could even conceivably jump the shark. But I don't think it did. I still don't buy it. Maybe Sudan jumped the shark.
But I simply cannot see how Blogging (in the universal sense, hence the capital B) is even of issue in Pronk's ousting.
And I don't know who this B guy is, but I think I might agree with him. But there were so many words...
In all seriousness, the act of CNN joining the term "blog" (a foreshortened version of the term "web log"--and a sassy version at that) with "U.N. envoy" signals a sort of extinction. Blogs will continue to exist, of course (just as television situation comedies continued to exist long after "Happy Days," unfortunately), but they will never be as innocently "bloggy." "The Fonz" continued to exist, to be sure, but Henry Winkler's signature "Heyyyyyy" was never quite as cool.
Books, meanwhile jumped the shart at Tristram Shandy. You could make the case that it was Moby Dick (or even Samuel Beckett's The Unnameable), but I think books were pretty much done by the time Laurence Sterne gave us the blank page.
7 comments:
Warning: This blog entry may contain gratuitous use of "jumping the shark."
Do you really see Pronk's blog as a tipping point for all blogging?
So, you are saying "jumping the shark" has "jumped the shark"?
Pronk's blog is pretty much the tipping point for all things Western Civilization. Or maybe just the "tipsy point."
"Jumping the Shark" refers to the Happy Days episode where the cliffhanger was Fonzie jumping over a shark tank. The audience had long since lost interest, and this was the signal that, indeed, the writers and producers were trying to maintain to their small audience by holding the most popular character's life hostage. "Watch our show or we might KILL the Fonz!"
Lazarillo did not jump the shark because what threatened it was the censors, and not a bored audience. On the contrary, what you describe sounds like it needed no such shark.
Blogging, on the other hand, has become so commonplace that EVEN THE UN is blogging. By definition, whenever the UN gets involved, it is a bad situation (extinction is often the only thing that attracts the UN).
How do you explain LKs declaration that jumping the shark has "jumped the shark"?
(I so did not say jumping the shark has jumped the shark, said LK.)
I think it's absolutely a valid description of certain phenomena. I simply don't see this concept being applied here and I quibble (yes, QUIBBLE) with your application of it here. Is it possible that this term derived from the entertainment industry might not be universally useful, Mr. Popular Culture? Say...perhaps not to international policy issues?
Besides, Pronk's blog is his personal webpage. It's not a UN organism (although he is/was).
Pronk's blog could even conceivably jump the shark. But I don't think it did. I still don't buy it. Maybe Sudan jumped the shark.
But I simply cannot see how Blogging (in the universal sense, hence the capital B) is even of issue in Pronk's ousting.
And I don't know who this B guy is, but I think I might agree with him. But there were so many words...
In all seriousness, the act of CNN joining the term "blog" (a foreshortened version of the term "web log"--and a sassy version at that) with "U.N. envoy" signals a sort of extinction. Blogs will continue to exist, of course (just as television situation comedies continued to exist long after "Happy Days," unfortunately), but they will never be as innocently "bloggy." "The Fonz" continued to exist, to be sure, but Henry Winkler's signature "Heyyyyyy" was never quite as cool.
Books, meanwhile jumped the shart at Tristram Shandy. You could make the case that it was Moby Dick (or even Samuel Beckett's The Unnameable), but I think books were pretty much done by the time Laurence Sterne gave us the blank page.
No, Sudan IS the shark. The blog jumped them and then Pronk got jumped as well.
lk and b, you should know that letters jumped the shark a long time ago. When you started sponsoring Sesame Street it was all over...
Hee hee!!
Post a Comment