I’ve seen a lot of misuse and abuse of the term Meme on the internet, and, like other much abused internet buzzwords, it isn’t helped that the people misusing it are the loqutious types who tag every person the know contact info for on every chain quiz they mislabel as a “meme” or every poorly filmed video that they call “viral” or, or, or…

Shit.

Regardless. A meme is not a chain letter or a quiz of any sort. Really. A meme is a self-transmitting contagious idea, a concept that is passed voluntarily from person to person because it’s own nature makes people want to transmit it. This is a key facet, this desire to transmit. Many of the mislabled chain letters could easily be argued as memetic given that they have instructions to pass on the particular quiz. However, the concept of a self-transmitting chain letter is a meme, any particular one is not. The item is not a meme, the concept behind it isn’t.

There are many images that are memetic, some of which count as memes in their own right, some of which are merely facets of a bigger meme. Cat macros, as a whole, are a meme, while most particular ones are not. (Exemptions being Longcat and Ceiling Cat, among others.)

Am I making any sense here? It is an idea that universalizes and is transmitted through human interest and is recognisable by people subject to it. When I say “Cat Macro” or (God forbid) “lolcat,” pretty much everyone who has ever been on the internet brings one to mind. They have likely sent a particularly good one to someone else, furthering the meme. However, most of them will picture different ones. Those single iterations are, thusly, not memetic as “Cat Macro” though they might be mildly in their own right – above examples being some like this. The same goes for most image macros and typed jokes out there – the core concept is unversalised, the single iteration not at all.

Also, to anyone discussing internet memes IRL, don’t. Unless the conversation got there on it’s own and this is a necessary progression, discussing “this funny picture I saw on the internet” makes you look like a loser. And if you must, at least pronounce it right. It’s “meem.” Not “meemee” or “mem” or any other bastardization.

37,533 / 50,000 (75.1%)

Last night I was fiddling around with the unsuccessful host-change, so I missed a night of writing. Good thing I was ahead, I guess? 37,533 words. Getting to the home stretch.

The novel is now in full-on fantasy mode, and as I mentioned a few days ago, there is a plot. The novel will be in three parts, corresponding to three different genres: science fiction, a ‘band story’ (not sure what genre that would be), and of course the fantasy part. After November 30th, I will have to go revise the first two parts of the novel completely, and I might spin out the aforementioned ‘King Lolcat The Srs’ segment into its own separate short story. I skipped past the end of that segment because I couldn’t figure out where to take it, but it is very funny, in my opinion, and deserves to be shared some day.

In further news, I am weaving a character who might be named Robin, Bob, or Robert into one of the parts of the novel, who is “a self-employed hairdresser who likes electronic pop songs, wooden rollercoasters and Chipotle”. This character will be based on my friend Robbie, who may have suggested it as a joke, but he suggested it, and you never know where a joke may go.

I’m debating whether I should put cameos of a tea-loving electro-classical musician from Canada, a fun-loving housewife from Kentucky, a feisty Dude from California, a really nice guy from Pennsylvania, or a ’sometimes Emma’ in there somewhere.

also wirklich … bild von catfriend/pixelio.de