The Reverse-Chronology of a Blog and its Implications

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Another important distinction between e-narrative and traditional narrative is its reverse-chronological order. The first page of the blog shows the most recent entry, and by scrolling down on the page and moving backwards we find older entries. This is counter to conventional linear storytelling, with a beginning, a middle, and an end in that order. A blog reports the latest instalment in the story, whether that would be the latest part of the middle of an active blog (work-in-progress narrative) or the end of a defunct blog. This design of the e-narrative represents a shift from our attitude of “first things first”, to “the newest things first”. The audience of an e-narrative is interested in what just happened, rather than what happened in the beginning. Instead of “tell us a story from the start”, we ask “what’s new?” This is an important distinction between a traditional story and an e-narrative, and one that generates much criticism against the latter.

If we do not know where it all began, the history of a story, real understanding of the story is unlikely to occur. Reading becomes a process driven by cheap thrills and a mindless search for the next new thing, failing to prevail as an integral part of human learning. However, this worrisome effect is largely alleviated, in my opinion, because every single entry on a blog is archived. We can backtrack and return to the beginning if we cannot understand the story by just glancing at the ending. If my most recent entry says “Finally, I am all done and it wasn’t too bad!” this happy ending alone is not a coherent story. But if we scroll down the page, we would find that a few posts back, I was complaining about all these exams I have to write that I am not prepared for. This would reveal that “it” I was referring to in the latest post is the exams. But why I was unprepared for the exams is unclear. A few posts earlier, however, I am telling a story about how I did not attend class because of the hangover, a result from a reckless night out. What night out? A few more posts earlier I may mention that I plan to consume a lot of alcohol to celebrate my friend’s birthday. If the reader backtracks far enough, they will also be able to learn where my hometown is, why I decided to attend Queen’s University, what my life in high school was like, all the way back to my very first entry talking about the conception of the blog. The audience of my story as told on a blog could also jump to the beginning and read the entries from the start in an orderly and chronological fashion. The option to backtrack in this way is not always chosen, but it certainly is when there is a need. If I am interested in learning about an e-self, I can make the effort to explore its history. I think this option is sufficient to resolve at least some of the worries.

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An excerpt from the essay I wrote for Dr. Paul Fairfield entitled THE E-NARRATED SELF, reinterpreting Paul Ricoeur’s Narrative Theory of Self in the context of Web 2.0. If you want to read the entire essay, feel free to contact me.

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