Sunday, May 8, 2011

On Blogging

Why do we blog?

I shouldn't be blogging.  I'm not a technically apt person.  I write-- always have-- but why blog?  I don't even have an Internet connection at home.  I used to have a blog when I was 17.  A Livejournal.  You know the type, I complained a lot about girls not liking me and claimed, with a straight face, that Sufjan Stevens changed my life.

Blogging is probably the most self-indulgent form of human communication.  The solitary writing process is transformed into public flailing.  People want to believe that their own musings have value, and so they type unedited streams of half-formed thoughts and expect people to read them.

There are bloggers who fetishize and giggle over their insecurities and postmodernities, there are bloggers who gush over the latest gadgets or remixes, there are bloggers who write hopelessly misinformed political screeds based on their own provincial preconceptions.  I don't want to be any of those.

OK, so it's self-indulgent.  But eating a nice meal is self-indulgent, having that second beer is self-indulgent.

I read some blogs sometimes.  Ones written by friends.  Or ones dealing with totally wonky topics that I think are rad.

I really can't think of a good reason to write this thing, other than that I've been contemplating it for a long time, and that I want someplace to collect the thoughts that I feel have some validity... the sorts of thoughts that arrive on a gray fall afternoon on one's back porch.

So let's set up some ground rules.

1. Every entry must be at least 300 words.
2. Don't ramble.  Keep on topic.
3. Edit, edit, edit.  After writing an entry, wait at least 24 hours before posting it to the web.
4. I can post pictures of things I think are dope.  The Internet is good for pictures of things.  But this isn't Tumblr.  I barely understand what Tumblr is.  It seems to have a lot of pictures though.
5. There are many events in daily life that make great stories when told to friends over a coffee, but are totally unsuitable for writing down.  They have relevance within a specific moment or with certain people.  They don't deserve to be broadly disseminated.
6. We may have experiences that have great value to us, but they shouldn't necessarily to be translated to print.  Maybe what makes them special is something we can't even grasp.  Or maybe they are experiences that everyone has had and, because of that, it's difficult to make them interesting.  Have you ever noticed that everyone's story about the first time they do mushrooms is the exact same?
7. Lists are fun, but they get annoying pretty fast.  I used to think they were super cool.  I still kind of do.  But does anyone not skim those long lists of stuff in House of Leaves?
8. Try to avoid expressly political diatribe.  It's really, really easy for me to fall into that and become some sneering little punk spouting Marxist cant.
9. Don't fall into the trap of constantly reviewing the books I'm reading or the movies I'm seeing.  You can read a book or a movie review anywhere.
10. Don't try to make grand statements.  They tend to be Procrustean beds.

Onward and upward.

Love,

Subject/Object

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