Blake Stone

Blogging Rhetorically

August 30, 2009

While reading The Biography of Blake Stone by Jeramey Kraatz, the first thing that really grabbed my attention was the format of the biography. Usually we see biographies written as informational formatted essays that contain multiple paragraphs about another person’s life. This essay was not your usual biography; instead it was in the form of an Instant Message conversation as well as a detailed description of the character, Blake Stone who really was Jeramey Kraatz.

Reading two different perspectives of Blake Stone and Jeramey Kraatz was interesting because you could see two completely different people. As I began to read about Blake Stone, the tone of the writer, Jeramey Kraatz began to get emotional. It was easy to understand that he wasn’t completely happy with the way he was He wasn’t one to get a girlfriend and he wasn’t one to have very many friends. Jeramey talked about Blake as if he was someone that was very special to him.

“Blake was born in my Grandmother’s Compaq desktop. She was the first person I knew with the Internet”

Here Jeramey expresses how much his new self means to him. While I continue to read more about Blake and the new Internet Jeramey, I get a feeling that he is making up for things that he wishes that he had. As a not-so average pre-teen kid, Jeramey had his own vision of perfect—and he portrayed it through a fake person.

Our upcoming writing assignment has to do with our personal selves. It requires us to explore a moment in our life that was more than just a memory, its something meaningful and significant. This biography about Blake Stone and the real Jeramey Kraatz was something more than a life story. Blake Stone made Jeramey Kraatz feel comfortable with himself. I believe that in order for some people to feel comfortable with themselves they need something that makes them feel special. Jeramey felt completely comfortable with himself when he was being his internet self—Blake Stone. Blake Stone had the full package, he was a ladies man, he was smart, and he was popular in all the chat rooms. As Jeremay continued writing his biography about Blake Stone, he was still able to continue bringing up information about the real Blake Stone—Jeremay Kraatz.

I continued to notice how Kraatz was able to explain so much about Blake through simple instant messages between him and his relationships with his instant messaging friends. It is a very different way to approach writing a biography that continues to amaze me throughout its entirety.