I'm going to go cut myself so I know I still feel now...
I was messing around on the internet last night reading some blogs (I know, what else is new), and came across one particular blog that I couldn’t quite figure out. By this I mean that I couldn’t tell if the person was trying to be serious or if it was all one big joke. The blog is called Alcoholic Poet (http://alcoholicpoet.blogspot.com/index.html). It is basically a bunch of over the top, sad, pathetic, I want to go cut myself so I know that I still feel type of poems. The whole thing is so over the top that I originally thought that there was absolutely no way that this could be serious. I actually began to laugh out loud a couple times. I mean, how could you not laugh at a poem called “Cut the Baby in Half”? I’m not saying that cutting babies in half is funny but the ridiculousness of doom and gloom nature of it all was down right laughable.
Then I began to feel kind of bad. What if this was a serious blog and this person meant these poems to be taken seriously? I know there are people out there who are into this kind of stuff. I guess it just kind of surprised me when I came across it, you know? If it was real I feel like a terrible person for having laughed at it. But then again, maybe it isn’t real and this is exactly the type of reaction that the blogger is trying to get.
I really just don’t know what to think. It’s very possible that this person is totally serious about the work that is posted but then again it’s also just as possible that they are trying to trick us all. This leads me to an even bigger question: how much of what I come across online is real and how much is just a big hoax? I don’t know if I can ever really know for sure. It is kind of fun to think about though, however confusing it may be at times. Just some food for thought.
1 comment:
I always look for comments on blogs, and interestingly some of the poems do have replies - by a fan. My favorite is where the fan says something favorable, and then the alcoholic poet replies with "a waste of time, really," keeping in character. This being the internet, both the fan and the alcoholic poet could be the same person, or the fan could be a fan, or it could be multiple people at work on a collaboration. Interesting to speculate.
If it's a joke, though, it's a joke that's been going on for a long time. My opinion is that either the person's serious, or - well, I have a blog myself out there where I anonymously leave random thoughts or images. Sometimes they're good or interesting enough to re-work and use in stories. It’s kind of exhilarating, anyway, to drop words into the universe and not have to associate yourself with them. Maybe this alcoholic poet is similar. The “the alcoholic poet is not the entirety of who I am” on the about me page leads me to think so. Only on the internet can we fragment ourselves into a happy poet and a sad poet, right? This girl (? – I’m unsure if I should trust the picture) is probably out there with bleached blonde hair and a party lifestyle. Not quite cutting herself in the bathroom.
While I’m unsure as to whether I like the poetry, the person certainly has a grasp of language. This isn’t a livejournal with misspelled, bland tirades against life.
- babybird
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