Secrets of the City

Erik Hare is trying something new. His new project, Mythnology, is part novel, part blog, part fiction, part truth, part written, part performance art, and entirely fascinating, from the sounds of it.

The story itself begins with a simple premise:  what if you could look inside people’s heads and read their thoughts?  Mythnology is based on what I think are the two almost certain results from this process – that you would probably not understand what you are seeing, and if you grew to understand it you probably wouldn’t like what you saw.  That’s simple enough as it is, but speculating the nature of what you’d see is where the story comes in.

Mythnology is many stories at once.  It is a mystery, it is science fiction, and it is a hero’s journey in search of truth.  The story takes place in real time using a blog format to unfold gradually in a way that speaks to new technologies and new ways of reading.  It is ultimately about the use of fiction to probe what the world has no interest in knowing as fact.  A bit like The Da Vinci Code, Mythnology explores events that almost certainly happened but have been hidden by their own inconvenience rather than invent a new story of intrigue.

“The title Mythnology is a combination of Technology and Mythology,” writes Hare.  “One is based on a system of faith where the other has a core of truth in it.”

I happen to believe that myths, or stories that illuminate a grain of truth at the core of them, are the strongest connections between people.  If a strong society is all about connections between people and people or people and ideas, our faith in technology is certainly going to test us in ways we probably do not understand very well yet.  The ancient art of storytelling, or the crafting of myths, is how we usually fill the gaps.”

The goals of this novel are as important as the story itself.  It will be presented in serial, a chapter per week, for a subscription fee of $7 $9.95.  The platform will be the personal blog of the lead character and told from his perspective.  Mythnology is an attempt to show that fiction writers can use new technologies to reach their readers directly, bypassing the publishing industry altogether.  By publishing “raw” text as it is written, with very little polish and editing, it will be equal parts storytelling and performance art.  Taken as a whole, it is an experiment for a new generation of readers and writers.

Anyone go to the Neil Young show yesterday?

Ok, now what’s in store for the weekend?

Some of you may have heard that our editor, Cristina Córdova, and publisher, Kristin Henning, are both leaving the country next month (not together).  Without them, I’m afraid that we (The Bartel Cartel) can no longer manage this site.  So we’re looking for someone to step up.

Aside from our most valuable asset, the crew of MNSpeakers who regularly post and comment, here’s what we have to offer:

• MNSpeak blog and archives
• Daily Secrets written by Kate Iverson
• A list of 8,000 opt-in email subscribers on the Daily Secrets and Weekly Deals lists
• The 5-year-old Theater All Year ticket program
• An event and restaurant database with over 2,600 local venues (including 800 restaurants)

A few notes:

• We don’t necessarily need a single person or organization to take everything off our hands.  We wouldn’t mind splitting off MNSpeak as a stand-alone site like back in the old days.  The other assets are severable as well.
• The email lists are only for sale to someone who intends to use them exactly as they are used now, for daily secrets and weekly deals.

ALL offers will be considered. Restaurant meals and plane tickets included. MNSpeak can basically run itself if there are a few people willing to write brief posts a few days a week. Like I said, I’m happy to keep hosting it for now. Whatever we can do to keep it alive. Leave a message in the comments or email matt at secretsofthecity if you are interested in more detail (current revenue, traffic numbers, etc.).

Check out Steve Marsh’s MSP Magazine piece on Jason DeRusha. (Really, read the whole thing!)

DeRusha is known as the Internet savant of local television news. This is repeated enough that it’s sort of annoying—just because he blogs in multiple venues, participates in the comment sections on other local blogs, and has a webcam set up at his desk, he’s the Internet Guy? He senses my annoyance.

“I feel like [my colleagues] think of me as some kind of reporter from 2050,” he says. And while this has helped him in some ways, it’s a brand most of his peers aren’t comfortable with.

“The media is afraid of interacting with the public in a way that everybody else is already doing,” DeRusha says. In the staid world of local television news, the notion of openly, brazenly bringing yourself and your opinions to the public—believed to only have the potential to cost you credibility and viewers—well, it’s different. And as we all know, different is Minnesotan for disdained.

…

As anybody who spends any time on the Internet knows, the scrutiny of the camera has intensified: There are a lot of haters out there, whether it’s on mnspeak.com or in CJ’s column. The membrane between media and media consumer is thinner than it’s ever been, and despite the easy grin and constant banter, DeRusha clearly feels it. In some part, I think that’s why he developed the “I’m kind of a big deal around here” shtick in the first place—personality guilt. (He was raised Catholic, after all.)

He may be a real egotist, but it’s framed by the self-deprecation of a guilty egotist—you’re not supposed to bring so much attention to yourself up here. This becomes sort of a feedback loop—he talks about himself, feels guilty about it, and then makes fun of himself for talking about himself. In fact, DeRusha seems to have worked out his own neat little cosmology, his own code, to help him make sense of this cycle: “I get a little defensive when people think that I’m a raging egotistical beast,” he says. “I don’t think that’s a fair description of who I am. Do I have a strong ego? . . . Yes. Is it bad to have a strong ego? . . . I don’t think so. Is it bad to be a jerk because you have a strong ego? Absolutely. Am I jerk? I don’t think so.”

Granted, it was motivated by yesterday’s post about her Book Signing/Reading Rager, but I just have to share another Amber-Colored Life post with you today — just because it’s about MNSpeak, of course (and the glory thereof).

Back in the day, when I was getting ready to move from northwest Wisconsin to Minneapolis, MN, I wanted to get an insider view of Minneapolis/St. Paul before I moved there, so I started visiting various local blogs and websites. One of the sites happened to be MNSpeak.

Of course! MNSpeak was special back then — perhaps it still it to some of us.

I LOVED MNSpeak. Over the years there’s been various articles and blurbs about it in papers and magazines, local and otherwise, about the stimulating conversation and illuminating opinions one can find on there. That was occasionally a nice way to say that if you wandered on there unawares, a kinder soul could get killed. You couldn’t be an idiot, and you had to know that there were people lurking in the background just waiting for the chance to stomp on someone’s ego. But if you knew how to string a basic sentence together, didn’t take yourself too seriously, and knew how to stand up for yourself when need be, you were pretty safe. Sometimes.

Indeed!

The thing about MNSpeak was that it was a community. It was before the inception of Twitter, and those of us who were a part of it were a part of it every single day, usually all day. The conversations and topics on there were alternately smart, challenging, hilarious, and infuriating. And I met so many people from MNSpeak – the majority of my current internetting friends were once fellow MNSpeakers – and I even got the opportunity to take part in Chasing Windmills via MNSpeak. The people on there can be harsh and I got my knocks a time or two, but that only helped me hone a thicker skin and a quicker mouth, so I’m actually pretty appreciative for it.

Ah, Chasing Windmills. Yes, indeed. We would have had an entirely different second season without MNSpeak, as we used it to recruit a most interesting cast of characters. But that aside, there was many an excellent conversation happening here, as well. So… uh.. thanks MNSpeakers! And thanks to those of you who have stayed on board throughout the years.