Thursday, April 4, 2013

Meta

Dear #,

When I write genuine letters and send them in the mail, I can't seem to break the habit of going into meta writing. It seems this blog is no exception, so I've decided to get it out of my system and move on.

As I've been developing this project, I discovered I want it to serve dual purposes, both humor and a more serious exploration of ideas, principles, and beliefs. Your name and identity are a running joke, but letters to a future generation should be about more than mere comedy, so I'm doing both. Deal with it.

With love,
Dominic

4 comments:

  1. What do you mean by meta writing?

    And why are name and identity a running joke?

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  2. Are you going to set up a "follow" button?

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  3. Meta is something about itself, so metadata is data about data. Meta writing is writing about writing. Meta theatre is a play (or show) about theatre. Meta politics is politicking about politics. Believe it or not, this kind of thing actually happens all the time.

    I'm getting into the joke about #. My H+J post hints at it.

    Yes, I'll get a follow button up today.

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  4. I think going meta when you write letters is fairly universal: "I wrote this letter to inform you..." Okay, just inform me and get it over with. I think this may be why writing instructors try so hard to prevent students from using first person academic writing, but meta writing is still fairly pervasive, especially in introductions.

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