Saturday, January 20, 2007

CAMPFIRE CHAT-LINES ARE LIKE SOME BLOGS

Those chats around campfires are a bit like some blogs and folk. They are both quite different from lectures given from up high in church or university or even school. A chat around the campfire is free - we can tune in and tune out at will. The campfire allows that kind of freedom. There is no master of ceremonies peering down at us. There is no one way to chat. The story continues around and around until it gets into a kind of memory or even a tradition. People pick up and mix and continue the story and it all goes on. It is all a bit like that old oral tradition in one way.
In Norway there has been a continuing debate concerning "book culture" and the older folk and oral culture attached to the lands-folk. Politics in Norway today has mainly taken the book-way-world but there are enough remaining just a little ( just well enough) outside to continue conversations with a campfire chat line.
But in Norway there is no one word for a campfire. Each local area has its own way of making and firing fires. Indeed a knowledgeable Norwegian walking hills or forest can often tell just who made that fire and this through the structure and design.
Many blogs are, it seems to me, like this. OK.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pass the marshmallows.

zola a social thing said...

Cold or hot?
On a stick or in a bag?

Anonymous said...

BWI beat me to it.

Anonymous said...

Bugger Marshmallows.........
they remind me of something unpleasant.
Back to Nature, I say.
Cosy round a campfire, telling stories..
Got a lovely book on Nordic art..........we could do life classes,start a new culture......
be banned from the world as we know it............

Anonymous said...

"While you and I, dilly, dilly, keep ourselves warm."

Anonymous said...

I like that idea, Bwi........
It interests me strangely.

zola a social thing said...

Blow those embers me hearties
Pair of bright sparks both of you
And others.
But poor old BoldScott left behind again whatever are we to do wid him.
An English education?

Anonymous said...

Is a Wandering Minstrel the same as a Wandering Jew ?

Anonymous said...

The Boldscot learnt after all those years in Swagland that there is no need for an excuse for a 'grill'.
Any time, any place.
Yet another national pastime which comes from Communist times when there wasn't a lot of money about.
Rub two Boy Scouts together and 'hey presto!' instant Zanshin.
Yummy, I can almost smell the kielbasa.

Anonymous said...

You Boyscots all taste the same.

Anonymous said...

'Boldscot' and 'left behind'? Monsieur Roget should leave ample space between em.

anticant said...

What a lovely metaphor. But there's nothing 'camp' about the cosy fire in the burrow Snug, thank you very much.

Anyone who says otherwise will be summarily rubbed together by the Beadle.

Anonymous said...

Ah, Zola, I have a good bottle of the old devil ready for whenever I happen to visit Finland. You can tell stories. I can drink and deconstruct them. Or vice versa. It doesnt really matter. We are all postmodern now.

Anonymous said...

BWI said : 'Boldscot' and 'left behind'?
I hope we are only talking about traffic circulation here?.

zola a social thing said...

No flaming please otherwise I will sizzle yer sausages.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, ZoZoBear....I was about to have sausages for breakfast.
It's a lovely morning here,misty and yet sunny.
There again, the street lamp is still on outside and the windows need cleaning.
Oh to be waking up by the campfire.....

zola a social thing said...

In a serious Sunday way I say that a wood fire is wonderful. I made one in the house yesterday (it is minus 20C)and somehow to just sit a watch the flames is enchanting.

Also the elctricity bills keep going up and up. Power to wood fires i say.

Anonymous said...

Zola is your sausage sizzling still or has that LB stolen it.

zola a social thing said...

Both/And/Yes.

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