Memage

[shewhomust]

Not-quite-adjacent on my friends page today are sartorias talking about her discomfort over the current "ask me a question" meme, and kythiaranos talking about how much she likes it. That's exactly my understanding of what a meme is, a topic or image that dances through our conversations...

But current usage seems to be slightly different: a meme is not a pattern thrown up by our preoccupations, but a conscious suggestion for a post. So a quiz is a meme, because it gives you a graphic to paste into your blog, and maybe some commentary on the side ("I'm not really Gimli / Nevada / Kennedy's Latin Primer, am I?"). And instructions like "Ask me a personal question" or "list the hundred best albums of all time" are also memes.

I do a few of these, if they entertain me (some of the quizzes, and I very much enjoyed "tell me something completely invented that you remember about me", both for what people remembered about me, and for the stretch of my own ... memory). But mostly I don't have time to write about the things I want to write about, I don't need suggestions, thank you.

This particular meme:

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about each other. So if you like, ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

To begin with, that's not "the problem with LJ" for me - I enjoy the way this very particular medium allows me to play with a mixture of revelation and concealment (and if that makes it sound like the dance of the seven veils, I'm good with that, too).

I'm not nursing a bunch of questions about my friends. If I read something that makes me wonder something about you, either I'll think it's OK to ask, in which case I probably won't wait for a meme to give me permission, or I'll think it's not OK, and I won't, even on that sort of invitation. And I hope you'll do the same to me.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I'm not nursing a bunch of questions about my friends. If I read something that makes me wonder something about you, either I'll think it's OK to ask, in which case I probably won't wait for a meme to give me permission, or I'll think it's not OK, and I won't, even on that sort of invitation. And I hope you'll do the same to me.

Zzzzactly.

[sekhmets-song.livejournal.com]

I have some of your same problems with this meme (and that's why I am not posting it in my journal). But I do admit that I am using it as an excuse to ask some of the questions that occasionally bounce around in my head.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Demon kitty-cat! Naturally you're curious, you're a cat...