The ways in which the Net--particularly the "Live Web" of indexed blogs and powerful search engines--continues to shrink the world never ceases to amaze me. For example, if you Google "batista," the first three people who come up are Dave (the professional wrestler), Fulgencio (the Cuban dictator deposed by Castro), and, uh, me. (Can you guess who's who above?)
I'm not sure how many students of Cuban history stumble across this site, but I know that some pro wrestling fans do because yesterday morning I received the following email:
Dear Batista Supper Star,My name is [deleted] and My nationality Cambodian people I watching TV on the Supper Star of Smarkdon and Raw clubs soar you to be the Supper Star have the justice and have the very much people support and take care and this firs time I searching see your email and would like to support you. I am very happy to search see your email. My two daugther she like-minded and she is like watched TV supper Star very special to be to see you.if you contact me please you see bellow my address.Thanks, Best Regards
[deleted]
On a certain level, of course, the confusion is pretty funny--"Supper Star" is my wife's new nickname for me--but I'm not posting the message to mock it. Never having seen Dave in action, I don't know much about his wrestling persona, but apparently he's a good guy--he "[has] the justice" and "the people support." And it's somehow touching to think about a man in Cambodia watching pro wrestling with his daughter, both of them rooting for Dave Batista, then tracking down an email address and sending a message to express their admiration as fans.
I know I shouldn't be surprised that American pro wrestling is popular in Cambodia--but I am. And now I have all sorts of questions about the internationalization of pop culture: How is pro wrestling perceived in places like Cambodia? As pure entertainment? Pure sport? Some combination of the two? Are the wrestlers' outsized personas seen as characters? Are kids around the world holding "backyard brawls" like their American counterparts and getting scolded by their parents?
But there's an even more basic question: What have I done to be in the mix with Dave (whose reach obviously spans the globe) and Fulgencio (a third-rate dictator but an historic figure nonetheless)? The answer is: I blog. And blog posts are indexed, and search engines just love indexed content, and that's how you get found on the Live Web these days.
