Reading Ocean from the last several months would have one believe that I do not work. It isn’t that I post huge amounts, or that anyone would be inclined to say – man oh man, there is no Nina out there, everything is on Ocean and Ocean is about everything. It’s just that I never mention anything related to my work here.
Of course, Ocean is a mere smudge on my day – a lovely (for me) effervescent smudge, with colors and ebbs and flows, but a smudge nonetheless. Moods come and go, flowers bloom, leaves fall, and all this never makes it onto to the Ocean floor.
Still, many have said that Ocean works for them because it is so…personal.
Gulp. Personal? Oh dear.
Okay, so I do happen to work and I do happen to teach. Something equivalent to 2.25 classes per semester (Torts and Family Law this fall). And predictably, ever since I started blogging, each semester, a handful of students from my classes will in some way let me know that they read my blog.
I do send out little tests: I mention something that one would get only if one read Ocean and I canvas the room, looking for that small flicker of acknowledgement, that wink, that tiny grin that tells me They Know.
This fall, their faces have revealed nothing at all. No guilty admission after class, no wink, no reference, no email and, most significantly ----- no comment.
Because in fact, this is the first semester where I am teaching with a blog that has a functioning comments section. The opportunity for (pseudo-anonymous) punchy-ness is there, and I am waiting for that irrepressible shot from the hip, of the caliber where I am sent to my proper place in the corner, quivering.
As for the personal stuff appearing herein -- okay, so I have to live with the fact that a student may potentially know a hell of a lot more about me than I do about them. I have come to accept that. It’s like throwing up in public.* You reveal your weaknesses and hope that all witnessing your transgressions are a forgiving bunch.
As a final note on teaching and blogging and the relationship between the two, I want to say that I have two groups of students (in my two classes this semester) that are astonishingly wonderful. I will protect them with all my might and so references to them and their peculiar and adorable idiosyncrasies will not appear on Ocean.
*BTW, my Ocean is my huge indulgence. Let it be known that I have never thrown up in public. And it has been more than 35 years since I have had so much to drink as to make myself ill, so don’t hold your breath waiting for a sordid description of such an event here, on Ocean. It’s not gonna happen.
4 hours ago
Isn't, just a little bit, the point of a blog precisely that nasty little thrill of exposition qua exhibition? Otherwise we would all write in safe leather-bound diaries with small keys hidden in our underwear drawers for only mothers and little sisters for an audience.
ReplyDeletePaul
Paul: No, for me it’s not that at all. If I could entertain with stories about the life of another, I would write those stories (and indeed am doing this in another forum). I draw from my days for Ocean only because there I find the greatest amount of material that could potentially amuse and entertain a reader. You, the reader, may get a thrill in reading about some oddity that is revealed here, but I get absolutely no thrill from exposing it. Trust me. I’m in it for the writing and for the creative exercise of putting together a package – visual, verbal – one that may be of interest to a regular reader. The one caveat is that friends and family may occasionally read into the text more than appears there on the screen. It’s not exactly inside humor, it’s just that they know so much more about me and therefore can pick up on details that probably are lost on others.
ReplyDeleteSaul: The day Ocean becomes boring (or, excessively boring) is the day I know I have to try my hand at something else. Like freelancing at writing obituaries, for example.
I think exhibition (small 'e') is (per definitio) inherent in the diaristic type of writing that is a blog. You are not, after all, writing about others' lives, or even imagined lives, in Ocean, but your own. But don't misunderstand me, this exhibitionism is not at all meant to imply an attendant sexual thrill; that is, rightly so, a seperate beast. Nor is this at all a criticism of the medium. Rather, in writing down, however constructed to entertain, the details of your life, however simplified, one commits to an act of revelation (small 'r'!). And I think that your post admits of this risk.
ReplyDeleteAnd my very long-winded comment is really meant only to say: "that's ok".
:-)
Paul
I presume the title of this post is either one of those things that only people who know you well get or a reference to topics addressed in your torts and family law courses?
ReplyDeleteSamples: hey, I don't go out of my way to be all insidy about stuff, honestly I don't! It's a reference to teaching this semester torts (personal injury and malpractice and defective products) and family law (aka divorce law).
ReplyDeleteThough now that you mention it, that second part...
If I had had the internet on my laptop when I was in lawschool I would have spent every class reading your blog. Instead I had to actually listen to you (at least most of the time)...which really wasn't so bad either.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever read any of your student's blogs? And if so, has it ever worked the other way--have you made a remark about something they said in class to let them know you read it?
ReplyDeleteAnon: A favor to Ocean: use a pseudonym if you wish as a signature, but use something, okay? I so prefer that to completely anonymous words. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAs to student blogs -- when I am made aware of one, I read it, most often list it on my blogroll and frequently comment on it. There are several there at the moment -- both law and sociology grad student blogs. I have found, however, that student blogs come and go with the same frequency that students come and go. So I give them more or less a month and if they don't post anything -- off they go.
Although I found two One-L bloggers before they even set foot here at UW Law School (you know who you are!), I am not aware of any bloggers in my classes this semester.
Not sure if you have read it yet, but Erlignition (here at blogger) is amazing.
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