Origins of the faux-naif bloggy voice?

Sterling you do realize that all three examples you linked at 1:25 were written by people who work/worked at Gawker, right?

Oh OK Max already pointed out that Choire is the source. Carry on.

i figured gawker was a key part of the nexus (i mean lots and lots of current bloggy things are tied to the ex-gawker diaspora), but didn't read it/pay attention at all in the whole formative period, so good to know that there's an actual person this goes back to. although i would like to think back all the earlier little mag on the web experiments and think which generation of those writers probably had an influence here (suck had a difft voice, but maybe some _parts_ of suck presaged this?)

I think there's a strong anxiety element to the whole thing - an underlying fear, maybe subconscious in some cases, of seeming dull, not with it, overly self-serious, a relic of the print era, etc. if you don't at least make a nod to that style.

that's the power of the in crowd
that's why i am interested in late adopters and bloggy voice teetotalers

is lindy west a good exemplar of the ladyblog voice? http://jezebel.com/people/lindywest

maybe. i find her writing distractingly cluttered with jokes and references that cloud her (often very good) points. if that's what you mean, then yes.

i read her pope thing. its like if musto and taibbi had a sassy bloggy baby. i think people like stuff like that though. they must. there is a lot of it. half gossip column + half fuck you.

I enjoy it in small doses, at least in the hands of someone who can pull it off, like Sady Doyle. Otherwise, it seems like a bad pastiche. All the stylistic boxes are ticked, but it falls flat, like reading anyone's attempt to mimic, say, PG Wodehouse or Hunter Thompson etc.

hi

This is all really interesting but I don't think I know what blog / voice is / was actually meant!

With DFW the big tendency was I think to mix in a lot of technicality and grammatical precision with a lot of informality at the same time. I think other US writers do this also. But I don't think this is naif ... ?

http://d3fsqtc6sy2z27.cloudfront.net/uploads/37b229e23a2a7a0f344a1289b45e90ec_large

i have no idea where to put this but holy shit is this the most annoying email or what
it makes me never want to order from grubhub again

We Miss You.
Like the Deserts Miss the Rain.
Oh, hey. So this is awkward. How you been? Us? Doing great. Things are really looking up. One day at a time. Deep breaths.

Just one thing: Please come back. Since you left, we're all numb. John Mayer is deep. Nicholas Sparks is moving. And who knows how the hell all these cats got in?

Let's Work It Out. And Order Some Dinner.

But hey, if you're really gone for good, help us get a little closure. Why'd you give up on us when there were so many good times still ahead?

1. I moved away. And this long-distance delivery just isn't feasible.
2. I met someone new. They'd deliver the sun, the moon and the stars if I asked.
3. Our relationship grew too expensive for my taste. Were you ever going to treat me?
4. You screwed up a lot. I'm through giving you second chances.
5. Our relationship wasn't healthy. You made it so easy to order so many things.
6. We're just taking a break. You're still my one and only.
7. I haven't quit you. I just renewed my vows with a different account.

And that's it. Please come back.

Hasta Luego,
GrubHub

ugh
esp this

Let's Work It Out. And Order Some Dinner.

actually all of it is the worst
the whole thing
worse than groupon

^^ reads like a haiku

still insane to me that this thread went 200 posts before anyone mentioned Choire Sicha

did you read his book max

haha I posted about grubhub over here:

Sarahel's Semiotics 4U

see also: the Innocent Smoothies Aesthetic thread

yes

well

i liked it

cool

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/english-has-a-new-preposition-because-internet/281601/

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/n_9825

preachin' to the Choire

pronounced choir situation

i hate that use of "because"

i only like it to watch the spread of adoption

its the worst of thing thats kinda funny as a joke until it becomes a convention then its just dumb and useless and not funny

except i guess it could help on twitter because character limit

hmm i wrote worst when i meant kind interesting because freudian xp

The article is correct in that the new form of 'because' has become widely used and recognized, but it remains to be seen if it has any staying power.

it's insidery shorthand because people like to be part of a crowd that is so in that they use their own shorthand
reading old noise board threads is good for this too, if i'm being honest

people who use "because" like that are monsters

real concision hedz use "ftb"

= "for to because"

afaics, it is merely a truncation of "because of". If it were true that all cases of the new usage would conform to traditional usage by substituting "because of" for "because", then this new use represents a very common sort of progression in American English and I'm guessing it will stick. We Americans love to truncate.

i suspect it will not make the leap from jokey voice to regular voice

because dumb

#dumb

afaics, it is merely a truncation of "because of". If it were true that all cases of the new usage would conform to traditional usage by substituting "because of" for "because", then this new use represents a very common sort of progression in American English and I'm guessing it will stick. We Americans love to truncate.

i disagree, i think it's a much bigger ellipsis than that.
e.g.: "i have to see this because EMOTIONS" is not short for "i have to see this because of emotions" - that's still an incomplete sentence! It's more like "i have to see this because [i have a lot of emotions related to this]/[i anticipate experiencing a lot of emotions]/[i anticipate that this is full of emotions and they are a thing i like to see]"

i.e. it is not the 'because' that is really the focus we should be looking at, it is the way the subsequent word is a distillation of a clause

So you locate the ellipsis you describe in "because" and not also in "EMOTIONS"?

that was an xp

i disagree with aimless's theory too -- it is too casual to be that widely adopted

it'll go away like the vomit in everyone's mouth went away

ha some people still have a lil vomit in their mouths and when you hear about it you feel a little pity because so uncool

so it will be thrown under the bus, you are saying?

when you hear about it you feel a little pity because so uncool
exactly -- only the too late adopters will use it and they will out themselves as deeply uncool

that little bit of vomit shows up on my facebook wall sometimes

and i'm guessing that at least 4/5 times it's a late adopter, if not 100% of the time