Saturday, May 19, 2007
About memes
The word 'meme' is new to me, and I am always reluctant to use a word if I do not fully understand it. I looked it up in some sources, and asked my son how he understood it, but then I went a bit wild and entered 'meme' in the Google Image search. One is rarely disappointed - of course there were pictures describing memes; but my eye was caught by a beautiful photograph of a sunset which hardly seemed relevant. I followed the picture to the website of Nandita, and searched her blog for 'meme'. She is involved with a number of memes, but in a slightly different way, that is to say, not by inviting interviews, but by tagging people for them. If you are interested in her blog memes, follow the link I have given you to her website - I think she has some good stuff there. She will have your mouth watering for Indian cuisine, too.
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5 comments:
I first met up with 'meme' in the book 'Viruses of the Mind' by Richard Brodie (1996). He describes memes as the building blocks of culture, the way genes are the building blocks of life.
I've decided meme means "Me! Me!" I love to read them and to write them.
I believe that the word meme is originally from Richard Dawkins, with the meaning that Lee gives.
I read what you had to say in your blog about memes a while back,Granny J, which is what made me cautious about it. I am still not entirely clear how the word is seen to apply to these online interviews. Is it the concept of the blog interview itself which is seen as "a unit of cultural information" or "a cultural practice ... transmitted ... by repeated action from one mind to another"? (American Heritage Dictionary)
Seems to me that the use Lillie make of 'meme' is suspect. That list of instructions transmits no cultural information at all. Because of your misgivings I'm pretty sure that, sharp cookie that you are, you understand its proper meaning perfectly.
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