Monday, April 17, 2006

A royal response!

Narcissus

Today at the palace, Craziequeen's Monday Memories are all about the the origins of her "blogging habit" and she says

"I leave you with an excerpt from October 14th; I sent my mother the first page of my blog, to illustrate my new venture into IT. She said that “blogging seems essentially narcissistic.”
I wonder - is it narcissistic? Or is it a reflection of the loneliness of the modern technological age? Or is it taking advantage of a wonderful opportunity to put oneself “out there” and meet new people?"

Narcissism :: Excessive love or admiration of oneself, a psychological condition characterised by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem. Or alternatively erotic pleasure derived from contemplation or admiration of one's own body or self, especially as a fixation on or a regression to an infantile stage of development.

Is my blog narcissistic?

Am I self-preoccupied?
Do I lack empathy?
Am I excessively self-admiring?
Am I deriving erotic pleasure from the contemplation of my own body?

PLEASE!

Aren't we all a little bit inclined to self-preoccupation? Ok, so my blog is about my life, but I started it for me, my memories in one place, in the way I wrote a diary aged 9. Was I ever accused of narcissism then? Through writing my memories down I have made friends, people whos lives I step into for a small moment of each day as they in turn step into mine. There are those who have become better friends ~ emails, texts, hot chocolate and phone calls. But is this narcissism? Or is it my nature?

I usually blog for one of two reasons ... either, so that I can remember what I’ve done ( as I forget everything … known in the family as JSM ~ Jo’s Senior Monents) or so that I can rant without shouting at the people I love ~ releases steam without the awful arguements, moody silences and the guilty self-recriminations.

And what about cq's mum? How is it she can accuse her child of narcissim when in fact the palace is full of stories, photos and anecdotes which are true outpourings of love, humour and friendship about her life and those that are important to her? You know that saying about people in glasshouses not throwing stones, or is it the one about not casting your pearls beofre the swine ... no CQ, (in my opinion) no narcissism involved!


So, go on ... are you self admiring? Do you take "erotic pleasure in your own body"?
Why is it you blog?

9 comments:

Fizzy said...

um that is a toughy.
I blog to record events and highlights in my life, but that is not naricisstic (sp?) as it always involves my friends, family or work.
I blog about the tough times to help me unravel all the probelms so that I can help sort the problems out.
I blog to meet people... and have done that loooooads of time (online and in person as you know).
All of those things could be done in a diary where the only person who ould read it was the writer now that is Narcisstic (sp?)!

Just for this comment I am not a Teacher and so can ignore the really hard spelling of narcissitic.... is there ever a harder word to spell?

Le laquet said...

Hear hear! Or is that here here? Yes you're right narcissistic ~ bloody difficult work!

craziequeen said...

Thank you Jo, for your lovely comments :-)

[snigger] I have never thought of myself as narcissistic [pokes tongue out at Fizz] and I gather from your your comments that I am not a blogging narcissist.

Of course, I never believed I was - but I found my mum's comment interesting.......

Just for the record: My mum was a teacher. She taught the classics; Latin and Greek.

cq

Fizzy said...

Miss! Miss!
She stuck her tongue out at me!!!


OK Ok so you can spell the "N" word CQ. ;)

craziequeen said...

[pokes tongue out again.......]

[runs off]

Just for that - I'm blogrolling the baby duck!

Laquet - I think my mum was talking more about self-preoccupation, but I see you nailed that too!!

cq

Lisa said...

I guess I can get a bit on the narcissistic side...I will congratulate myself for being a fabulous person and Yay! all over the place about that sometimes lol

I started my blog for pretty much the same reason as others...to have an outlet...to say my thoughts out loud, giving me the opportunity to organise them better...and to just ramble in general at times.

What I didn't realise when I first started out, was that I was going to meet such lovely people, make some great friends and end up bossing them around when I don't know what's happened to them lol

As for the erotic pleasure from the contemplation of my own body....well...I'm a single woman in my 40s....it's the only way I'm gonna get me some at the moment, so don't give me flack about that ok?? lol

Fizzy said...

AND Miss Miss that Lisa is showing off by putting an "ic" at the end of it....
*walks off muttering oaths under her breath"


*singing* Nah Nah I am getting Blogrolled :) :) Neenie Nahh Nahh

Le laquet said...

Stop it you two ~ I'm not above putting you in detention! Truly libens, volens, potens for that maties!!

Dawn, welcome over ... it's gooooood to see you!

Lisa ~ flack? Moi? As if ...

Oi Fizzy, stooop it!

Fizzy said...

*shuffling shoe in the dirt*OOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKK