Blogging on Blogging on Blogging

Days Walking - 78

The great Robin (of Robin Diane's Conversations fame) got me thinking about blogging.

None of my thoughts on blogging are going to be new or erudite in the least, as I am just rambling and not writing a thesis. Forgive me, leave me, do what you must.

In case the links are broken some day, here's the quote:
"It seems to me that the problem with diaries, and the reason that most of them are so boring, is that every day we vacillate between examining our hangnails and speculating on cosmic order." -Ann Beattie, Picturing Will

I'd like to preface this rant by saying there are a lot of brilliant, thoughtful, well-done blogs out there. Very wise, funny, witty perspectives on daily life. Great writing, work that makes you wonder how on Earth it's not in paper-and-ink print, and how all the crappy novels and crummy essays get published and these blogs get overlooked.

There should be an editor at each publishing house who has no other job but to scour the web for these brilliant blogs and bring them into the world of print -

- Share with the rest of the world the great writing, performed by ordinary Joes and Janes every day that almost seems to redeem humanity from our 'Welcome to Jerry-Springer's America' destinies.

Blogging is perfect for fandom - it lets people create a web page in mere moments, cheering their favorite team or show or book, spreading the word, sharing their great thing they found.

Blogging is like a ready-made support group a person can create at a moments notice. You can discuss dealing with an illness, your highs and lows, and other people can read it and see that they're not alone, discuss treatments with you, and you both grow and learn and deal together.

But then - I'm kind of torn. Blogging is like keeping a diary that you choose to leave on the table at Starbucks - attached with those odd spherical chains like a bank pen to the very granite foundation of the mini-mall. And then are aghast when someone posts an 'anti' comment.

It's like a yearbook you pass around on the last day of school, hoping that a few members of the football team will leave you their phone numbers along with their signatures.

In this virtual diary you rant, you ramble, you revel in life and its mysteries and its bullsh*t. And then you wait for delicious feedback.

For many blog writers, it seems far more about the feedback than it is about the content. (I've absolutely been guilty of this at times). You want the world to toss some validation your way and pad your ego with compliments.

It neat that we can reach out to this dimension of the universe and meet folks who can interact with us without our typical baggage of attitude - Maybe everyone 'Katrina' knows in person is an assh*le, but Cool-Dude43 thinks she's amazing.

And it's a good thing that Cool-Dude doesn't really know Katrina in person, because then he'd treat her like an assh*le too, because she's a bitch of the first order, and people treat her poorly because she treats them badly.

But in a blog, her bad behavior becomes funny, like something we see on a sitcom. An amusing anecdote. It's an uncomfortable scene that we cringe at but continue to watch, like Meet the Parents.

And we comment on Katrina's blog and tell her that it was a funny thing she did, to be rude to a whole store full of cashiers and customers. Which primes her for future bad behavior and furthers her delusion that her behavior is acceptable and everyone around her is just a jerk.

Katrina pretends the blog is a private thing that the world has oops! accidentally stumbled upon, and reacts with self-righteous rage when a reader suggests that maybe she needs to not be a bitch.

As for blogging about blogging, it would be silly not to talk about anything you care to mention in your own diary.

If I make an entry about a problem - and someone posts a helpful comment, then obviously breaking that wall, in both directions, is the reason the functionality for interaction exists.

Otherwise, just jot your thoughts down in a paper notebook and hide it between your mattress and box-springs.

And if a blog I read make me happy or pause to think, then that's part of my day and deserves note in my diary.

This is our chosen medium, it's all about communication. Ann Beattie is accurate but not correct, (note - I have not read her book, or the quote in context) as she seems to underestimate the soul-searching, defining moments of sharing, and usefulness of stumbling along, examining our hangnails.

Litany Webb, signing off

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