ByJane has a thought-provoking blog on, well, blogging. “Blogging is just another genre of writing, not inferior or superior to any other in and of itself,” says Jane, who advocates for good, well-considered blogging and against any mentality that would make blogging some kind of ugly stepchild of “real” writing.
May I commit a sort of sacrilege and paraphrase Annie Dillard, who should know about such things, in The Writing Life?
Putting a [blog] together is interesting and exhilirating. It is sufficiently difficult and complex that it engages all your intelligence. It is life at its most free. Your freedom as a writer is not freedom of expression in the sense of wild blurting; you may not let rip. It is life at its most free, if you are fortunate enough to be able to try it, because you select your materials, invent your task, and pace yourself…
The obverse of this freedom, of course, is that your [blog] is so meaningless, so fully for yourself alone, and so worthless to the world, that no one but yourself cares if you do it well, or ever. You are free to make several thousand close judgment calls… Your [blog] on which you lavish such care, has no needs or wishes; it knows you not. Nor does anyone need your [blog]; everyone needs shoes more. There are many [blogs] already — worthy ones, most edifying and moving ones, intelligent and powerful ones… Why not shoot yourself rather than finish one more excellent [blogpost] on which to gag the world?
Oh, why indeed? I really questioned myself last January, when I first dipped my big toe in the Blogosphere, about whether or why my voice was really needed. It was scary. There were so many great blogs/voices out there. What could I possibly contribute? Did I really have anything to say? Or was I going to just “gag the world,” as Dillard so vividly puts it. Nearly 100 posts later, I’m still trying to find out.
Why do we need to do this, to put little pieces of ourselves out there for the world to consider — and sometimes misunderstand, or completely ignore? “O reason not the need!” says Lear. “Our basest beggars/Are in the poorest thing superfluous. Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man’s life is as cheap as beast’s!”
Sometimes, I think, the need is enough. Some of us just need this, we need to speak in order to find out what we really think. It’s therapy. It’s trying to make sense of an increasingly nonsensical world. And if someone else reads it, that’s a bonus, a blessing.
And I count my blessings.
UPDATE: Wow. The NYTimes has posted a doozy of an article on blogging run amok. I guess there are worse things than not having your blog read.
May 22, 2008 at 10:40 am
First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your 100th post. It’s no small feat.
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Blogging is about expressing oneself, and perhaps helping to make a difference on someone’s life. My own blog is a few months old now; I’m more than satisfied with the results. Blogging is also very enriching. We get to learn new things and help others learn as well.
May 22, 2008 at 10:58 am
I’d never really thought of blogging as writing in itself. I use my two blogs (The Bucktooth Times and Deliberations From Danglydong Dell) as a means to advertise my ‘proper’ lieterary work in the hope of building some form of fan-base for who-knows-what in the future. But now that I realise that blogging itself IS writing, then maybe that isn’t so important. But I can’t live without ‘hits’, and there seems precious few of those making any impact on my ‘stats’ page right now. How the heck does one get on the radar? Oh woe is the lonely, misunderstood writer/blogger.
May 22, 2008 at 11:07 am
Thanks, leafless. I agree, and you have a very colorful blog. We’re fledglings together. Keep it up.
Paul, I was able to generate some traffic/interest with a post on Blogher, a Website for women bloggers. Problogger.net also has a list of suggestions for bloggers to increase readership, although his list has a bit of a commercial slant to it. It seems to be just a matter of keeping at it.
May 23, 2008 at 5:30 am
Ms Meta, I’m glad you’re blogging. With my slant on midlife women, it’s great to see us out there figuring out this cyberworld. You seem really up on things, Twittering, I’m impressed! I think it’s so important for us to keep up.
And there is something about knowing what others are thinking…it helps one keep a perspective. And, it’s comforting to know you aren’t alone in asking the questions
I look forward to seeing you hit your 200th post!
Allison over at WomenBloom
May 23, 2008 at 2:43 pm
You’ve always had significant things to say, and I think your blog is interesting and enlightening. Perhaps I’ll join you soon.