There's an interesting story in the San Jose Mercury News you might want to read. It requires registration, but, it's basically about someone who ran a weblog for three and a half years about a person who did not exist, known as "Layne Johnson."
Since I wasn't a reader of the site I have no strong feelings on the matter. I know there are people using weblogs as a basis for writing stories, and it frankly strikes me as a very neat character development tool. Although I'd think that if you're going to do something like that, you'd want to go well out of your way to avoid getting too intimate with your readers, and to make it clear to people in some fashion that you're writing stories. Or a "caveat emptor" warning, anyway.
I kind of liked what Emma said. "Online is real." And it is. I've had very good friends I've met online, many of them people I've either never met face to face, or only met face to face once or twice, or talked to on the phone a few times. Written communication is still real communication. It's not really all that new, either, for in centuries past there were people who would carry on written correspondence with each other for many, many, many years without ever seeing each other. So, as with many things, the internet isn't really creating things anew so much as it's making faster and more common what used to be slower and more rare.
I penpal, quite a bit. The people I write to only sometimes send me pictures; are they really who they purport to be? On one level yes; the created persona
"being" to me, as this is the one I have a relationship with. But I would be deeply hurt to learn that I had been true to someone and they had offered me only a shell.
I understand the hurt that many readers must have felt (I was also not a reader.) But the truth is one always must be aware that the person on the other side of the keyboard, or pen, may not be who you believe they are.
Very true.
On the other hand, I've had the horrifying experience of meeting and growing very close personally with someone I met face-to-face, not through the internet, a person I cared very deeply for, only to suddenly find out that I was dealing with a con artist who intentionally manipulated me, got money out of me, and then hurt and embarassed me badly.
While I suppose you could say the internet makes such things easier, it's always a risk when dealing with people.
Stupid humans. Destroy them all, I say....
I find the whole subject fascinating.
Is (hmm, does this thing do html? Only one way to find out) Belle De Jour fictional? Some people think so. Was the online persona created with the intention of selling a book?
I think that the blogosphere has potential both as a medium for promoting fiction, and for creating it. I've thought about exploring it, but with a novel underway, I don't really have time.
Although, to look at it another way, don't most blogs incorporate an element of fiction? :)
I married a woman I met online! I did this back when meeting someone online was considered risky.
It's always fun to talk to people who say they're thinking of getting together with someone they met online. I always warn them that most people they meet online are psychopaths. My wife usually kicks me about that time.
Hey Dean: My own suspicion has long been that Belle De Jour is very much a work of fiction. Interesting writing though. ;-)
Hey Sharp as a Marble: We have something in common. I used the Usenet, no less.
My tag line was "Have cat, can cook, not gay"
Lemme tell you, I got a LOT of weirdos before I met my wife.
I've become friends with a number of people I encountered through USENET and in comments on blogs. Some of the finest and most interesting people I've ever known. I just got a phone call this afternoon from a woman I met through her insightful comments in a blog.