http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/19/narratives-global-war/ Failing better at understanding the past Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:42:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/19/narratives-global-war/#comment-581 Investigations of a Dog » Ego me mihi meme Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:15:02 +0000 http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/19/narratives-global-war/#comment-581 [...] While I reject the meme as a tool for explaining human culture there clearly are ideas circulating in the blogosphere through copying from one blog to another. In this context, there are memes, but when they’re explicitly called memes they’re often pretty much what I first thought: fun but pointless. However, since I graduated from LiveJournal to Wordpress last October and joined the history blogosphere I’ve been able to take part in a much more interesting exchange of ideas than just telling the world which dysfunctional Care Bear I am (you can probably guess that it was Nihilist Bear anyway). Until today this blog has officially been a meme free zone, but I’ve written several posts that were inspired by reading other people’s blogs. In fact around a quarter of my posts so far have been responding to something on another history blog. For example, my post on Grand Narratives of Global War was originally going to be posted as a comment on Airminded until it got so long and complicated that it had to be a post in its own right . In the light of this, I don’t think there’s any need for history bloggers to tag each other with memes, because we’re already interacting in a more interesting and productive way. [...] [...] While I reject the meme as a tool for explaining human culture there clearly are ideas circulating in the blogosphere through copying from one blog to another. In this context, there are memes, but when they’re explicitly called memes they’re often pretty much what I first thought: fun but pointless. However, since I graduated from LiveJournal to Wordpress last October and joined the history blogosphere I’ve been able to take part in a much more interesting exchange of ideas than just telling the world which dysfunctional Care Bear I am (you can probably guess that it was Nihilist Bear anyway). Until today this blog has officially been a meme free zone, but I’ve written several posts that were inspired by reading other people’s blogs. In fact around a quarter of my posts so far have been responding to something on another history blog. For example, my post on Grand Narratives of Global War was originally going to be posted as a comment on Airminded until it got so long and complicated that it had to be a post in its own right . In the light of this, I don’t think there’s any need for history bloggers to tag each other with memes, because we’re already interacting in a more interesting and productive way. [...]

]]> http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/19/narratives-global-war/#comment-5 George Simmers Sun, 22 Oct 2006 16:11:58 +0000 http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/19/narratives-global-war/#comment-5 I was made very aware of this issue when I was in Riga. The war memorial to Latvian sailors of the First World War dates the end of the conflict as 1921. Suggesting a very different metanarrative from the one we're used to. I was made very aware of this issue when I was in Riga. The war memorial to Latvian sailors of the First World War dates the end of the conflict as 1921. Suggesting a very different metanarrative from the one we’re used to.

]]> http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/19/narratives-global-war/#comment-4 Airminded · Investigations of a Dog Sun, 22 Oct 2006 06:16:05 +0000 http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/19/narratives-global-war/#comment-4 [...] He’s also weighed in on the discussion about when the Second World War started, with a post questioning the need for a single metanarrative of the war. His conclusion that ‘Since we can’t dispense with the Second World War but can’t define it very easily, we might just have to accept that it’s fuzzy around the edges’ seems reasonable to me. air-minded, adj. [...] [...] He’s also weighed in on the discussion about when the Second World War started, with a post questioning the need for a single metanarrative of the war. His conclusion that ‘Since we can’t dispense with the Second World War but can’t define it very easily, we might just have to accept that it’s fuzzy around the edges’ seems reasonable to me. air-minded, adj. [...]

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