multum in parvo

Extelligence (detail) by Christina Neofotistou.

Is Dystropoppygus (the blog) Greek? In case you feel this is an invalid question, please reconsider: there are plenty of blogs today proudly bearing little buttons with miniature flags, announcing to the world that they are "Canadian" or "British" or whatever. Well, what the flags do is that they actually announce the respective bloggers' nationality. Given that the majority of blogs worldwide are scripted in english, one would think this makes sense. But what about team-blogs like ours? Of the three editors, one is a Greek citizen studying and teaching in Great Britain, another is a legal alien living and working in Greece and myself is certainly a Greek in Greece, carrying a decade of living abroad in my bags. Does that make the blog Greek? Well - I'd argue it takes more than the sum of its parts. Despite the fact that there's no clear editorial policy, there have been no posts of purely "greek" interest. The fact that two thirds of our readership got greek IPs must be due more to our blog-visiting (and -commenting) patterns than because our posts are particularly interesting to Greek readers. Even the blog's title doesn't immediately give us out as greek: sounds like a medical term to many -- aren't all medical terms greek anyway? There you have it.

If our non-Greek visitors and readers are now wondering where this is leading (our Greek readership, I fear, have stopped following me already), I assure you it's simple in the usual complique style of this writer. There are more "Greek" blogs than (like?) ours out there that you should know about and I feel one would benefit visiting those that have attracted my attention. Least this could lead to would be we're dropped (from blogrolls and links sections) in favor of some other fellow bloggers who appear to be representing the Greek "blog-flag" in a better manner than we do. Read on then.

Histologion (a greek word for 'blog') is definitely quite famous: Recipient of a Satin Pajama Award (1st Annual European Weblog Awards) in the "South Eastern European Blog" category and runner-up in the "Blog Deserving Wider Recognition" category, they proved theirs is a solid readership willing to carry them forward. This is a political blog not necessarily following the major headlines; rather, I read it as attempting to pinpoint general trends and decipher seemingly unrelated bits internationally so that the reader herself draws the connections. I don't know if the categorization "radical left" does justice to this blog (but that's AFOE's opinion). Note: There's a greek-language Histologion(-gr) also which is a completely different version, not a translation. My rating: Crisp. To-the-point. Near excellent overall. [Appropriate Music: Beethoven's Piano Concerto Nr.5 in E Flat, Op. 73 "Emperor", 3rd movement: Rondo (Allegro)]

Blogging within the tradition of "academic blogs" (what do you mean there's no such tradition to begin with?), Academia Nervosa supplies wit, humour and, more often than not, wrath. Based in London, England our blogress keeps one eye on the motherland (and it sure helps that she also keeps a separate greek-language blog which she updates in a more timely manner. Several of her posts stem from her academic interests and research (the Media) but there's a number criticizing bad attitudes at home. In her own words: "A flaneur in the world of academia." My rating: Always interesting reading, sometimes even blissful, but unhappily not getting the blogress' attention as required. [Music: Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis), Cowboy Junkies]

More blogs from academia: Steph's lessisapossibility doesn't really read academic at all. His texts and photos let the soul of an artist trapped in a scientist's body sneak out. Following the birth of his baby son, we increasingly glimpse at a a really happy (but at times desperate) new father. Recommendation: perhaps make this blog the basis of some children's story book? The art is there, so is the talent. [Music: DJ Tiësto's Athena, from the Parade of the Athletes, Athens 2004 Olympics]

Yet another London-based greek academic who casually forgets about his english-language blog, to heck with this! (His greek blog to be found here.) A cybernetics research fellow who takes shots at comprehending how the Brits think (often, he has his doubts that they do, actually), how little daily life utilities function, or even how his views of the Thames can be made better. A verdict? If only he would update more often... [Music: Steely Dan's Pixeleen, from Everything Must Go]

I know our own De(e)lumina would kick me should I fail to add her own personal blog within the "academia" contingent. Dee's (primarily) english-language blog bears the "unbearable" title ... Like pushing the prune into the rice pudding. It's a very personal account of her life in Britain - well, I won't say more. After all, I asked her to be part of Dystro, so this alone should suffice. [Music: Human, The Pretenders]

(to be continued)