I read the discussion on Miss Snark, the literary agent about Sock Puppets and I’m saddened to see puppets once again taking a bashing.
Back in the early days of the blog I’d surf around the net to see what people were saying about me. One of the recurring themes I found both hilarious and strange was “she comments on her own blog anonymously” and “she makes up letters”. I wondered what kind of total nitwit would do that, let alone what double nitwit would think I had to make up anything.
Wellllllllllll, come to find out there’s a term, sock puppet, for aliases people use who comment on their own blogs, or defend themselves on their own blogs.
At least, in this case, the analogy is a fairly apt one. Sock puppets are usually made by someone sitting around at home. They usually are crudely constructed and monodimensional, often badly manipulated. But not always. Still, it’s better than the standard use of “puppet” as a metaphor. It’s at least specific as to the type of puppet.
