Your point about being uncomfortable with the attention is well-taken. I’m sure that’s true as well.

Some of the other “celebrities” weren’t quite as friendly, but I got the feeling that they were uncomfortable with all the attention. Bloggers are used to having some anonymity or at least distance from their readers.

Nancy, Yes, I think you\’re exactly right. I really didn\’t start this discussion with any intended criticism of celebrity or those who hold others up as celebrity, but more questioning whether that is the most productive interaction for any of us, and most importantly, those of us in the blogosphere who hold such power collectively toward change.

Liz, great insights. it is truly a matter of stepping out of the comfort zones, but on a higher level I wonder if it\’s fair to hold up fallible people so high. It seems like we don\’t really give them enough room to fall softly if they should stumble. It can be the same reason that musicians seem to get stale after a few hits, or writers fall into a formula — it\’s safer to do what works than try new pathways when you\’re sitting under a microscope.

Kris, I think we did meet at the community session. At least, you seem very familiar to me.

Mocha, bottle some of that middle child stuff and sprinkle it on this eldest — you\’ve definitely got a knack.

Sage thanks for your kind comment! I\’m so glad to hear that your son is thriving and an A student. That\’s the goal.

Steve, I\’m loving the videoblog. And of course you already know that I love your mother\’s blog, too.

TW, it was great the way you originally wrote it but I\’m happy to put your edited quote in there if you want. Better yet, I\’ll just recommend that folks click the link.

So recommended.

DnW

About the celebrity stuff. at one point I decided to do some research and approach some of the “famous” bloggers and get a photo with them … act like groupy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/sets/72157594216039910/

I was curious if I would get ignored, get 6 seconds of polite photograph, or have a brief engaging conversation …..

I’m stewing on a social networking guide (face-to-face techniques) to go out of your comfort zone and talk to people even if they aren’t famous blogger.

The thing I am finding out is that when a lot of people pay attention to you or read you and then want to talk to you, it is lovely yet exhausting. And it can feel like a weight of expectation. People know that is true when they walk up to a person who is getting a lot of attention, i.e. fame within a particular scene, and that’s part of what makes them feel shy or tongue-tied . Book authors deal with it by doing lots and lots of small readings and book-signings. It gives structure to that interaction. I see why, and how it is practical, and yet it cuts off the “celebrity” from being open to new relationships and serendipity.

One way to defuse that is to value the people you know whose blogs or writing is just emerging. What is more productive and intimate… a commenty-bloggity relationship where your blogs are deeply intertextual, between 5 people who all pay attention to each other, or your comments on a ‘celebrity” site? In social network terms: people tend to over-value a link to or from a celebrity – a node that is linked to 1000 other notes. er, I forget the actual terms for this but something like “eigenvectors”. However, the most “valuable” networks are small and dense clusters with heavy activity. So, make your own woolfcampy type of thing and you will all celebrate the value of your local cluster. Decentralize fame. Importance is not popularity – it is sustained, interlinked attention.

That said, I will still never forget that one 5 minute conversation I had with Ursula Le Guin where she told me how she stayed up all night before Wiscon 20, making a Bajoran earring to wear. So I understand the gratification of the fannish moment. And I also still tell little stories to myself about how someday we’ll hang out around the kitchen table together, unable to remember that time when we weren’t Best Friends… That’s the kind of thought train that if you have it, must gently be pushed away so that you are freed to do the wonderful things that YOU will do.

I think this is part of what I have started to blather about moving from the culture of fear to the culture of love. Maybe we need to shift the culture of celebrity a bit as well too. Wahddayathink?