Hello all, this is my first blog addition to the society's page, so I thought I would simply overview some of my own pleasures as a student of English literature, particularly related to the culture of blogging and the ever-daunting future of the publishing industry! In the Winter semester of 2009, TESS' academic event was a career-based seminar asking students, "So, you want to be a Journalist?", an inquiry to which the guest speaker, star journalist Aaran Jacklin, responded to students, "Reconsider." The harshness of Jacklin's immediate response to the seminar's theme prompted the packed room's attention, and, just as a rhetorically gifted journalist would, Aaron had us completely thinking and re-thinking the whole notion.

Admittedly, I'd been thinking about journalism in months prior to the event as a career opportunity available for a Lit. student's relatively swift and painless immersion. I suppose that this half-completed thought needed Aaron's reconsideration comment as a bit of a rude awakening. He didn't want precisely to dissuade individuals from journalistic production, choosing rather to emphasize the fast-paced evolution of the industry away from its print-media foreground, and, unfortunately from there, its lucrativeness.

But then, that is precisely what makes it an exciting opportunity for English Lit. students here at Guelph to get involved in the blog-nebula that has befallen our generation. Additionally, while we're here, why not contribute content to a page we all can access for the purpose of a bit of mental excercise?

Stuart Woods, editor of Canadian literary magazine the Quill and Quire, has recently been contributing blogs and print editorials for his mag that proclaim the importance of the internet, acknowledging government budget cuts for more grass-roots lit mags, and comparing his knowledge with that of his peers. As one of his more recent editorials paraphrases a contemportary, one John Freeman: "A journal... cannot simply publish writing anymore; it has to become living if it is to stay alive." This reminds the reader of the importance of a continuing literary shift toward the much more efficacious and cost-friendly internet. The language of Freeman's quote almost hints at Ian Fleming's James Bond for its urgency. (Anyone? World is Not Enough? Referent to the demented and power-hungry terrorist Renard, played by Robert Carlyle, who leads a suicidal and masochistic crusade of infamy, all motivated by the slow-moving stray bullet wedged right in the middle of his brain?) Anyhoo, Renard's whole saying in that movie was, "there's no point in living if you can't feel alive." As pertinent as that quote might not be, I still think that it applies to journalism.. sort of.

Despite repeated reminders of hiccups in this industry, one of many coming straight from the horse's mouth in the form of our journalism seminar last March, hope always seems to linger in some manifestation. If the culture of blogging can be built upon or improved by students and other moderators, I strongly believe that it bodes well for our literary and communicative future.

This isn't meant to be a static post, despite the fact that it is quite long. A significant response need only be a sentence long, but does anyone else agree with my feeling here? Will journalism as a field of work be rescued? Can it be bettered? Does the limitlessness of the internet pose a significant problem as it implements the role of "certified critic" upon every blogger? Is anyone even listening to me???

tristan