reflexion

I was given a bloggers reflections award (a blog-tagging meme making the rounds) by Rethabile Masilo, my good blogging buddy over at Poéfrika. While I appreciate the kind words he had to say about this blog and its blogger, I don’t want to tag anybody else. (The chain stops here.) But, I’d also like to share with my readers five blogs from my blogroll which have caused me to stop, ponder, and mull.

• Filmbrain.

  I like film, both theory and praxis. Filmbrain writes about film in an informative, witty, and intelligent way. He runs a weekly quiz with snapshots from DVDs where his readership is invited to identify the movie.

• Languagehat.

  Steve’s blog was one of the first ones I found in the blogosphere. He writes about all aspects of language and literature. He studied historical linguistics, but works as an editor. Some day I hope he will publish his ruminations in the dead-tree format of a book.

• Language Log.

  This is a collective blog started by Mark Liberman and contributed to by a plethora of linguists. Whether it’s snowclones, eggcorns, or mondegreens, you’re bound to find it here first. The posts of Professor Pullum, as he battles the angry grammar mavens of the world, are priceless.

• Ron Silliman.

  Ron is a working poet, who has studied poetry academically and in the trenches. His entries are long and exquisite. Read them.

• wood s lot.

  This blog is one of the best of the literary and artistic news clipping services available. Worth ten thousand badly written articles in some newspaper’s arts section or sound bites on some dreary radio or television station.

What these blogs all have in common is a passionate well-written-ness that refutes what various media pundits have to say about the blogosphere.