Thursday, June 9, 2011

Dumb Word of the Day

Webliography.

A bibliography of web addresses.

Amazing. I mean, seriously, wow.

If the person who came up with that had spent a few extra minutes sleeping in that day and thus had a few less minutes spare to ponder the cumbersomeness of 'web bibliography' (and to create the equally cumbersome 'webliography') the world would be a better place.

Don't you think?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Couldn't we all just agree to extend the definition of bibliography to cover non-book sources.

At least it's better than Arachniography, I suppose.

Kettle said...

Couldn't we all just agree to extend the definition of bibliography to cover non-book sources.

Yes, yes I think we could.

On the other hand, I think 'Arachniography' has a certain charm, and I rather think it sounds more like a catalogue of spiders than webpages. Ramon's gonna love it.

Kettle said...

Hey Alex, off topic completely, but any chance you've come across any graphic novels (in print or online) written in verse? Something early high school kidsters could handle? Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Not off the top of my head, Kettle, but there is something gnawing at the back of my brain. I'll let you know if that develops into anything.

Just to be sure:
• When you say "graphic novel"*, do you have a specific narrative structure in mind?
• Does it have to be rhyming verse?
• Should it be decent (like all forms of fiction, most comics are shit)?

* (surprisingly, back on topic) Historically, I've been opposed to the term "graphic novel" (as it sounds like a spineless attempt to circumvent the preconception that comics are inherently more juvenile than other forms of story-telling), but I'm now willing to accept that it can be used to separate "ongoing" serials (which are structured like soapies) from works with a traditional narrative structure (which may or may not be released a chapter at a time). Is that what you had in mind, or did you mean either?

Also, I just saw some footage on Lateline of John Faulkner giving the ALP a bit of a bollocking. I'll bet Ramon will love that, too.

squib said...

Tsk tsk. What is the world coming to. These slack young whippersnappers wouldn't know what a book was if it ran over them

Anonymous said...

Ah, here's what I was thinking of. Had some of these, back in the day, and thought they were great. I'm sure there's some poetry mixed in there. I saw Edgar Allan Poe's gob, at least. You might also be able to *ahem*, "sample" some of them, here, if you're so inclined.

Amazon also lists:
Poetry Comics by Dave Morice
More Poetry Comics by Dave Morice
Poetry Comics: An Animated Anthology also by Dave Morice
How To Make Poetry Comics by Dave Morice, yet again, and
Comics Poetry: The Adapted Victor Hugo

Hope this helps.

Squib, I'm starting to resent paper books as I get older. The print never seems to be big enough.

Unknown said...

They may as well have gone the whole hog and termed it "Internetliography". It's just as clunky.

Kettle said...

Dear Squib, Alex, EMS, good evening.

My apologies for not responding earlier to your marvellous comments. My small child has developed a rather awful case of influenza and I've been banging away here on the keyboard on an assignment for uni in the moments he's been asleep, poor droopy snot-boy.

The droopy snot-boy is now asleep and my assignment has been submitted so I return, with glass of wine, to your eruditity (not a word, but it should be).

Exactly with those whippsnappers, Squib. If only it were legal to rough up anyone under 25 with copies of War and Peace.

EMS do you dare me to use 'Internetliography' in an assignment? Go on!

Alex, your eruditity surpasses my ability to re-erudite tonight, so let me say just these few things: thanks for the links, you rock; thanks for mentioning John Faulkner - I heart John Faulkner; and oh yeah, WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU MEAN BY THIS:

Should it be decent (like all forms of fiction, most comics are shit)?

I am speechless (or maybe just tired), but heavens to Mergatroyd where did that come from?

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about the condition of the littlest Kettle. Here's hoping he makes a quick recovery.

where did that come from?

Simple matter of numbers. Remember when you had those movie tickets but couldn't find anything worth watching? That's because the number of bad movies getting made is far greater than the number of good ones. Same goes for books, TV shows and comics. Only, with comics, people tend to look at the dreck and write off the whole medium -- which is like watching Michael Bey's Transformers movies and deciding film is a lost cause*. At any rate, it means that if you want a good comic written in verse, your haystack just got that much bigger.

*Transformers 2 is on my short-list of "least-enjoyable films of all time"; and for some reason, I thought everyone should know that.

PS: Remember, the term "internet" actually refers to the physical network of computers that the web runs on; so you might want to use IP addresses rather than domain names in your "internetliography".

PPS: In case you weren't aware, you can read through the entire bollocking at senatorjohnfaulkner.com.au. It's quite good.