So I was interviewed this week for a feature in the student newpaper The Muse. The subject? Professors who blog. The news editor Sheena Goodyear (whose own blog is linked to the right here) contacted me last semester and asked if I'd be willing to be interviewed ... then postponed it when she had difficulty finding other blogging professors.
But find some she did, and the interview went forward this week. It's a nice piece (click here), though the picture of me is pretty horrible. I'm not sure how I'm sitting, but I seem to have managed to retract my chin into my neck. Ick.
I was afraid that too much would be made about the Untitled Newfoundland Zombie Project, and at first glance that seemed to be the case (my quotable quote under my picture, in much bigger font in the paper than online, is zombie-centric), but that didn't prove the be the case -- a well-written, balanced bit of work, especially impressive considering that Sheena's tape recorder turned out not to have worked, and I didn't get my emailed comments to her in time, so she was essentially writing from memory. Nicely done.
Two things though, a correction and an attribution. First, here's a section of the article:
He first realized he had student readers after he posted a proposal that all TV shows exist in the same universe, using specific references. “This student came up to me and said, ‘You watch the Gilmore Girls?’” he said, laughing. “At first I wondered how he knew that, then I realized he must have read it on the blog.”
The student in question was actually a she, a student named Elsa from my English 2000 class last year. Just so she knows I wasn't referring to her in the interview with the masculine pronoun.
Secondly, "His friend summed up the secret to his success when he told Lockett, 'You only post when you have something to say.'" I don't entirely know that that's necessarily the case, but it was a nice compliment, and it was courtesy of Jeremy Worth, aka the Duke of Clarence. Thanks for that one.
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4 comments:
I noticed the he/she mistake this morning myself. Sorry 'bout that. Glad you liked the piece. It was fun to write.
I thought it was a good article. And the problems with blogs begin with the "what am I going to say" and end with the "shit, I pissed off way too many people with that post". Which I think everyone runs into. Well, everyone but the people who think they're always right of course...
I stand by that. Even the more minor entries in your blog are interesting musings or amusing diversions. As for the rest, I hope you're doing your own backing-up, just in case. Imagine the archive you'll have after a few more years! I would print out hard copy, if I were you - maybe you do.
Good article by Sheena. Made me want to become a Blogging Prof - but I think I would post too infrequently. Probably best left to the experts!
Hi Dr. Lockett,
I stumbled on your blog in Sept/Oct of 2005 when I was in your English 2000 class. I still periodically check in. It's nice to know that profs are people with real problems and views about politics, tv (Gilmore girls included), and life in general. It allows students to know things that they may be too afraid to ask but are interested in. It's human nature to wonder if a prof is married, has children, where they grew up, what they like and dislike. Often we loose the humanality of school when we go to University... but not now, not with Blogger. We can still know our teachers (prof's) just like we knew about our teachers when we were home and settled in our parents house. Thanks for being a real person... not a superhuman prof who allows his degrees to come before his personality. It means a lot to the students to stand in front of to know that you are in fact a real person who enjoys a hot shower in the morning and a cup of Joe.
Amanda Stanley
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