Rhetoric Rationle

Now a more cohesive, better informed look at Coffee Rhetoric.

Coffee's authorial voice has certainly shifted over the years. Her hot topics, her preoccupations and interests, too, have varied and traveled farther away from the very personal sketch-of-a-day type entries we see from 2004, starting with her Birthday festivities with best friend, Cat. Because Coffee's blog is so heavily personal (VASTLY unlike Kottke.org, say), rife with photos and details, it makes perfect sense that the blog, like the woman, would be continuously evolving over two years. Her blog in particular, because of its very personal nature, provides a uniquely documentable example of how personae do indeed shift and change as time moves on.

Coffee's older body of posts consits of what I would truly, honestly characterize as an arresting synthesis of the confessional, the creative, the highly incendiary and humorous reportage of the seemingly mundane. Coffee is occasionally an advocate. She occasionally writes pithy commentary on the state of her world and her community as she sees it, accessing her own life as a jumping off point for such. She's got parts of a stories in there, short stories she's working on and other creative ventures. This, for example, is a really finely written, metaphorically thick and juuuuicy, almost spoken-word type post (how one manages to convey that over cyber space I couldn't tell you, but she does). From what I reviewed of the 2006 archives, she doesn't engage in this type of writing so much anymore, or if she does, she's not as quick to share it. A shame. As we confront the more current entries in Coffee's blog we find her heavy on theYouTube and the presence of more and more "dark moments" is notable. This isn't a new thing, mind you; Coffee has exposed her "darkness" before--eloquently and honestly.

If there is one thread of commonality in Coffee's blog it is that she is defiantly herself. So, She doesn't seem the woman to roll over and succumb to theatrics. The two above links show her dissatisfied, restless, and unhappy, but not despondent--she's got a fair amount of resolve. But her most recent post about having lost her way is very unlike the two I've linked above; it is dramatic to say the least and compromises the strong, self-sufficient image she's created for herself--jarring, no? The number of times she posts about needing to find her center and feeling lost in the recent past detracted, when I first read the very recent stuff, from her credibility as a writer and spurred the rather scathing comment I posted on Chris's blog. After having read her earlier entries I suspect, though, that the vaguely victimized and (take note readers all: I am characterizing a tone here, not a person, not an essence, not an entire blog: hold the affront for a breath or two) whiny woman discernible in a couple of recent postings is not what Coffee is--in fact, these posts feel/sound less like her than anything else in the rest of the blog. Don't believe me? Read back. It's worth it to see the shift. These entries mark what, in all likelihood, is an unfortunate epoch for Coffee Rhetoric's cyberpersona. Chances that she'll rally seemed good--her witty rant on the runners showed some promise-- but it seems a self-imposed hiatus is what's in order. If may be beneficial for Coffee to put herself on the backburner--I suspect she'll make a return with the YouTube and the voice that is decidedly not hers boiled off and with more of what she has been--creative, irascible, surly and incisive--distilled and ready for thoughtful consumption.