The State of Blogging in Japan: To Clast or Not to Clast

Ever since the announcement that Marxy was starting to blog “professionally” for the ad agency where he was already employed, the shit has quite literally hit the fan. Momus’ reaction was quite expected, but I’ve also had to comment and/or defend what Marxy has done in private emails, and I think it’s gotten to a point where I’ve had it with the negative reaction.

Are there people in the ad world that are just looking to manipulate the masses? Fuck yeah! Is Marxy one of them? I know he isn’t, and I believe that regular readers of his blog would be in complete agreement. So the biggest thing that seems to offend most is that he’s going to just speak for the man from now on for the Clast blog. Huh? Here we are, writers, who love doing what we do, blogging, and then something comes along where we can be put in a position to continue doing what we’re doing, but with a revenue, and suddenly we’re making deals with the devil!

Oh, I’m (we are) so sorry for wanting to make a living. Not everyone has the pleasure of living off royalties or what not, and there comes a point where something has to give — you have the day job, and then you have every else that you try to cram in the rest of your free time. Here YOU sit, high and mighty, criticizing everyone for not following the one “true” (and noble) path, calling us sellouts and slaves to the man (and his word)? That’s just ridiculous, and it reeks of egotism and a sense of grandeur to which I’m fast developing allergies (and here I thought it was the pollen that was killing all my senses these past couple of weeks).

Does writing “professionally” or accepting ads/sponsorship on your site mean that you’re giving up on any and all editorial independence? Fuck no. And yes, I do tend to cover things that my friends are up to — I do this because I’m in a position where I can shine the light on what they’re doing, and that I feel they deserve it. In fact, I probably developed relationships with a lot of them as a result of my admiration for their work, drive and enthusiasm in what they do. Some say I never criticize on this site. Are you kidding? This site is highly edited and very critical — whatever I will cover here is because I feel that it deserves to be seen, heard, or experienced. Period.

And so back to Marxy. The fact that he’s been able to start blogging at work is a very beneficial development for him, and has the effect of letting him spend even more time to do what he’s been doing for free and on his spare time on his blog for years. Some have seen the announcement he wrote of his Neomarxisme blog seeing changes has being a result, and maybe even a casualty, of the Clast blog gig, and that’s simply not the case. I’m not in a position to say any more, but let’s just say that he’s been working on the next evolutionary step of his blog for a while now, and you’ll all see the results probably sometime this summer (and yes, I will be involved).

Update: It continues.