Only The Good Die Young
I first learned of Culture 11 when fellow OG Chris Dierkes wrote me to say that the pre-eminently confusing James Poulos has approached him about doing some writing for an up and coming, “outside the beltway” conservative site on politics, culture, and all things Americana (and beyond). Chris and I shared what is commonly referred to as an “indie-blogger dork out moment” over the excitement and possibilities — I didn’t jump around shrieking, but I think Chris might have (ha ha!).
A little while later I wandered over to check out Chris’ “new digs” and was immediately struck by the originality of what C11’s creators had envisioned. While I’m not sure that the social networking elements of the site ever truly took off, it was clear that C11 was destined to be much more than just an online magazine or a series of blogs. C11 was set up to be a community, and a community dealing with politics and culture of all things. I was in heaven.
Like Freddie, E.D., Mark, and Chris (I think), C11 was the first place to give me a chance to actually publish thoughts I had only ever written on my own site. C11 was a site that brought new and fresh perspectives into the fold and featured them side by side with well published and respected writers and there was, frankly, no where else on the web that one might find such an amazing opportunity. The community that formed around this hooking into of possibilities was an impressive cadre all its own. The editors/bloggers of C11 proved themselves not just talented communicators, but, more often than not, interesting people who brought their own unqiue quirks and ticks to the table as an invitation to be real in all of this talk. They brought out the honest, if not at times intemperate, reactions of their readers and encouraged that sincerity to always be the first instinct of the site, as opposed to the sheltered fears we hid away.
In many ways, The League of Ordinary Gentlemen owes its inception to C11. All of the writers on this site in one fashion or another came into each other’s orbit by first entering the orbit of this exciting new site we’d all heard of and a mini-community of our own formed out of that trajectory. It is the dedication to real and considered dialogue, searching exploration, and enlivening debate that drew us all to C11 and those qualities very much infuse this site with which we’re all so excited.
C11 was setting up to be a premier site, I don’t hesitate to say that, and I, among many others, am better for the efforts that everyone there put forward. So thanks C11, we owe you, and as that Poulos character suggests — let us ride again in another life.
January 29, 2009 8 Comments
