Well color me stupid. Just today I figured out who c-franklin is. Where have I been? I mention this (and embarrass myself) because it puts another light on the stranger intimacy via blog issue. Here I am not recognizing that c-franklin is my "old" friend Chris (though I have to say there was something so familiar in his comments and really, c-franklin should have given me a clue), blogging with and commenting to "a stranger" only to figure out way behind schedule and despite all evidence that I am in contact with a friend. Sorry Chris.

The coincidence of the topic stranger intimacy in connection with the sudden revelation that c-franklin is indeed no stranger leads me to want to think about Seltzer's concept a little more to make it fit for the digital age. Granted, Seltzer seems partially to be mourning a lost wholeness. Though he never really says it upfront, I get the impression that somewhere before or beyond the "wound" culture there once was something complete and healthy, a culture where we kept the public and the private in their places. The serial killer, according to Seltzer, emerges as a logical response to a confused and sick culture, so there must have been other alternatives at some point. But as Cim says, why should intimacy with strangers be any less healthy than that with friends. Isn't category confusion a great approach to problem solving—after all, we are all told to think outside the box….

Part of the appeal of the Internet and our intercourse in it lies in the fact that though we don't always know who we are connecting with, we do get to choose those contacts for ourselves. We don't get to pick our families or (usually) our neighbors, but for some reason we're supposed to bond with them and share intimacies. In the end, we usually hardly know the people living next door (the neighbors of serial killers always say "but he was such a nice, quiet man."), we live thousands of miles away from our best friends, so we are willing to reveal our wounds and desires to anyone who cares to participate in a chat or blog. It is a connection often based in affinity and a form of proximity without presence that also allows us to drop the pretence of wholeness and embrace the inevitable fragmentation made particularly apparent by the bodylessness of cyberspace.

Until I saw the picture, the body so to speak, c-franklin was just a blogging voice. Will I take him more or less seriously now that I've connected a real person with the virtual? DUH.