kottke.org home archives + xml about kottke.org contact me
kottke.org - home of fine hypertext products

things magazine has a nice little post

things magazine has a nice little post on the Internet as reliquary. Reminds me of Julian Dibbell's comparison of weblogs to wunderkammers.

Reader Comments
7 comments
unclewilly says:

Never saw things mag before and doubt that I'll go back. Execrable, meandering writing on the reliquary
aspect of the internet. Was the aim to include as many digressive links as possible? Maybe the defects are just
in this post, I thought. Then, on the "about" page, I saw the unforgivable "comprised of." Too bad.

» by unclewilly on Oct 21, 2005 at 11:17 AM
rg says:

Things-mag (both soft and hard copy) is great read, it's the next best thing to a blog by iain Sinclair, the interest ratio of its links exceeding the dairy-milk blandness and self-importance of, say, metafilter. I find the shotgun volley of links progressive not digressive. We all have differing tastes.
I think my interest in delicious is something to do with this reliquary nature of the voyeurism.

» by rg on Oct 21, 2005 at 11:30 AM
polaricecap says:

Gotta say that thingsmagazine.net is one of my favorite sites. It's rare that a blog rises above circular, chatty sameness to the level of thoughtfulness that thingsmagzine.net is at.

» by polaricecap on Oct 21, 2005 at 12:41 PM
jpb says:

I'll give you 'meandering', and maybe even 'execrable'. But why is 'comprised of' considered unforgivable?

» by jpb on Oct 21, 2005 at 05:03 PM
unclewilly says:

Because, in careful writing, the whole comprises the parts and the parts compose the whole. Although writers are less careful these days, it's also true that "comprise" is often wrongly selected to lend an air of erudition when "compsed of" or even a simple "includes" or "included" would be not only simpler and clearer but also correct to all ears, not just some.

» by unclewilly on Oct 24, 2005 at 04:43 PM
jpb says:

Many thanks. It's been amended.

» by jpb on Oct 24, 2005 at 06:46 PM
Rufus says:

Amend it right back, but without the "of". I assume we're talking about this: http://web.archive.org/web/20040703014247/http://www.thingsmagazine.net/text/about.htm
UK English speakers have a right, and a duty to protect "haute"-english from bland American English.
"Comprising a blog..." is perfectly correct.

» by Rufus on Oct 27, 2005 at 07:57 AM

 
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.

More about this page

This entry was published on October 21, 2005 at 09:53 am.

Tags for this entry:  internet  www  weblogs  wunderkammers  juilandibbell 

kottke.org is a weblog about the liberal arts 2.0 edited by Jason Kottke since March 1998. You can read about me and kottke.org here. If you've got questions, concerns, or an interesting link for me, send them along. Here's the kottke.org RSS feed kottke.org RSS feed.

Advertisement

dot dot dot

Advertise on kottke.org via The Deck.

Looking for work?
kottke.org

You're visiting kottke.org. All content by Jason Kottke (contact me) unless otherwise noted, with some restrictions on its use. Good luck will come to those who dig around in the archives. If you've reached this point by accident, I suggest panic. In memory of DFW, rest in peace. Thanks for everything.