How about a Shortail, again?

What is it with the blog world and short tales? And why are they so popular? Aren’t they getting redundant? How can one possibly keep being amused by the same style of writing over and over again? And why does one keep writing the same kind of things?

With regards to the “blogosphere”, short tales refer to those few lines of words that have you believing that the story is going one way. And the last line is usually the clincher, after which you equate yourself to stupid and the author to amazing. You are left awestruck, like a 7-year-old boy who has just discovered the existence of the light-saber from one of the Star Wars movies (hopefully not from ‘Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith’ for more than one reason).

I can’t wholly blame the authors in this department. Maybe this is as creative as they can get. And for those of you, who are under the impression that it takes ‘creative-genius’ to write these, let me assure you that it does not. All you have to do is sit down and choose any object or event, and force your mind to think about it in a way other than the most obvious. And for all of us who have minds, it has come equipped with this thing we call “imagination”. So it’s not that big a feat. Of course, a little credit goes to these writers because they are using their minds unlike the rest who just choose to be lazy. And when they have the same lazy audience ooh-ing and aah-ing their work, you can’t blame them for being under the misconception that they are indeed churning out creative gems.

Now, this says a lot about the blog audience (who are usually bloggers themselves). I think I have figured out the reason for the apparent success of these tales. They’re short. Thus, they don’t take up time to read. For most of the audience, that must be a blessing in disguise. It means one doesn’t have to refer to the dictionary as much. Also, in this oh-so-busy world, who has time to read more than 5 lines of words? Unless, of course, it’s ‘Harry Potter 6’. Then people of all ages will stay up till 4 in the morning to finish reading it in one go!!!

I can understand these stories being interesting for a day or two, maybe even three. But how can one honestly be surprised every single time? Don’t you start to “get it” after a couple? Or am I over-estimating the IQ levels of the average blogger?

So here are a bunch of writers who are mundanely predictable. Even if you can’t predict the outcome of their stories, you sure can predict the type of next post on their blog. These writers probably know that they lack the ability to hold the interest of a reader for more than 5 lines. So we get tale after tale after tale. Assuming all the readers don’t suffer from ADD, I blame them for encouraging these authors with their silly praise. After all, the American population is as guilty of the injustice in Iraq as is President George W. Bush.

I guess humans are creatures of habit. We don’t like change. But someone needs to tell these people that variety is the spice of life. Because if Michelangelo had only painted faces of women, with no eyebrows, then the Mona Lisa would have no charm.