Blogging and the Politics of Melancholy

Abstract

Blogging, the publication of on-line diaries with links to other Web sites, is a recent activity and yet is already producing its celebrities. The author analyzes diary entries posted over five years by one master blogger, and his relations with his readers, to try to originate preliminary hypotheses on the politics of blogging. Observation of blogging in one of its most glamorous manifestations suggests that the new emancipation achieved by self-representation on the World Wide Web may be associated with what Scott Lash has called "the politics of melancholy," here characterized by preference for virtual reality, formation of a cult-like community, and political passivity.