Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Who'da thunk it?

So apparently, I’m “literati”. Yes, that is according to an email I received recently informing me that I’ve been included on this list of the “100 best blogs for the literati”. And they weren’t even asking me for my bank account details (though to be fair, the message was sandwiched between two emails from a very nice person in Nigeria.)

The site says -

“If you feel that you’re destined to be an intellectual long after you graduate from college, you’re going to have to work a little harder to keep up with high brow culture and scholarly debates on your own. These 100 blogs will help you jump in on the discussions influencing the art, literature, political and culture worlds, even without the support of your professors and fellow classmates.”

I have just two things to say about this:

1. I’m in good company. The other blogs in the History section include the excellent book history blogs Wynken de Worde and Bookn3rd, both favourites of mine. Check them out if you haven’t already.

2. High brow culture?? Wait till they see what I’ve got in store for you next week…

7 comments:

Steve Muhlberger said...

Very nice!

Don't worry about the "high brow culture" classification. One ref to "Herbert West Reanimator" will cover you for a long time to come!

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Bavardess! That's a great (and well-deserved) honor. :)

Bardiac said...

Wonderful though you are, it's an advertising scheme, no?

Bavardess said...

Steve - 'Re-animator'? Really? From memory, I did like the 1985 movie adaptation, though.
Bardiac - they haven't asked me for anything (yet) but the fact that the website is selling online courses did make me rather suspicious as to their motives (though they don't appear to be selling papers). I just found the description ridiculously OTT. Who even uses the word 'literati' these days?

RPS77 said...

Congratulations! It doesn't surprise me too much that you would get on a list like that, though. Your blog is somewhat like the kind of thing that I imagine I would write if I had had the mental discipline to become a real historian instead of someone who just reads a lot of history for fun.

Digger said...

Congratulations! And <3 Weasel Pulpit.

Bardiac said...

Yeah; their goal isn't to get you to buy anything. It's to use names to help their site show up on more searches or get linked.

So Blogger X says, hey, I'm on this list, so I'll put it on my blog. The site gets the occasional visitor, and also shows up more during related searches.

From what I've read, for profits are using student loan money and then not really much caring when students don't finish courses or whatever. They've got the money in hand and there's a supply of new students all the time. It's a business model that works well for them, though not so much for students. (That doesn't mean a for profit doesn't serve individual student needs well, but that they've got a business model that doesn't depend on that.)

I'm guessing those are more the sorts of on-line classes this place is advertising, no? (Though there are some regular schools on there, too.)