Wednesday, October 22, 2008

A Blog Is A Curious Thing..

A blog is a curious thing. For instance, has it ever occurred to you to wonder just how many people actually see your blog? Do you really know at all how many read your words of wisdom? I thought not. Well that is something that I began wondering about as I sat around trying to imagine first what I was going to write about next in this blog, then, more than that, whatever it is that I end up writing, will anyone actually read it at all. I mean like, why bother? Big question..


We bother because we think we have something worth saying. I guess that's it. Or it may be because we just wanted to see what it looks like up there in print. In other words, many of us really write because we do, having any one (or more) of a myriad of reasons for doing this. It can even thought to be fun to actually write something; almost anything actually, with little more inspiration or reason than that. Some people, me included, just like to carry on with pen and paper. Or, as is the case here, keyboard and screen. To support that, I have thousands of pages of pen and paper musings (not so sure they are always exactly that, but..) packed up in boxes around the house. I have thrown away thousands more pages that fell short of whatever standard I tried to apply to my writing. It is for sure that quantity like that can hardly make its way onto the pages of a blog, but still, the blog draws out the stirring that caused all that production in the first place. Yet, who reads it all? Few have read most of the boxed writings. Indeed, the large majority is unread by anyone else at all. Still we write. And when my son showed me how even I could write a blog, I fairly leaped at the chance to get to it. Of course, I spent little time wondering who might actually read whatever I was going to write, but that didn't matter much at all (still doesn't). But a few weeks into this new adventure, I have done some wondering about this minor detail of blogging, like just who reads it? So I decided that for this blog I would set that question out on the line and see if I could get any response at all. What I would like anyone who reads this blog to do is simply enter a reply. Make it as short as you like, or longer if you feel particularly prolific, but just give me a response of some kind. I would appreciate it, and I am curious. Since happenstance is the most likely way you have stumbled onto my blog in the first place, I don't imagine I will get many replies. But for whatever I do get, thank you..

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi! ;-) Vellly interesting, BTW! (Thought provoking, too.)

from,
-Sue

Moondustlover said...

Hi Dad. I write my blog because I am collecting a series of entries on things that I would one day like to compile in a book or something. Also, it is nice for me to be able to work through some concepts when there is so much information out there. I think you need to advertise more! David sent out my blog link to a bunch of people on his email address list, even though I wasn't quite ready. But... there's no time like the present!

Mike Young said...

There's this philosopher named Levinas who says that everything we need philosophy for starts with the face-to-face encounter, the confrontation with the Other and our recognition of the Other's "radical alterity," or the fact we can't really know the Other. And so, Levinas says, before we get into questions of "what's real" or "what's right," our first responsibility is to come to terms with the Other's unknowability, and work with it instead of rejecting the Other or trying to assimilate them.

I guess most of what I write deals in some way with that. The idea that "I have no idea how/what you really are and that is kind of wonderful." So too with the blog, then, this model of available words and invisible readers. Anything I write is, in a simple way, to make invisible friends.

And real friends, obviously, who are likewise trying to narrate their alterity, so I end up commenting on their blogs, adding links to their blogs on my blog, establishing a dialogue.

Blog is kind of a good word for it because it sounds like "bog" and it conjures up this image of some hut in a swamp. To go from bog to blog then is to put a light in the hut. By narrating our hereness, we feel less isolated in that hereness, right? Writing anything where people can read it forces you to turn thoughts into words and then gives those ex-thoughts import, charge, urgency. Because they have to stop being thoughts and start being communication.

And, I don't know, I think I write for some imaginary and ideal person who doesn't really exist. But I always imagine someone reading what I write, always imagine their reactions as I'm going, so I say hello to a lot of people and invite them to read what I write because it doesn't seem real until I know it's being read, and people won't read it until I say hello to them. Like if someone is admiring your garden, they're not going to come up and ring the doorbell and say "Great garden! I feel really enthusiastic about your garden!" But if you call out to them, invite them further in, they might say why they're there, and you both will feel good, etc.

And really, you don't really need that many people. Vonnegut imagined everything he wrote as a letter to his sister. Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein for a parlor game with her friends. And so on. You know there are a few readers here you've already said hello to. =)

John Young said...

To “S” (Sue):

I think provoking a little thought is hopefully the idea.. :)


Dreadymoongurl:

A book is an interesting reason for blogging I think. In that respect, a blog seems to be a new tool one can use for such a preparation. You would have to have some fairly specific subject ideas, but in reading your blog, you seem to have that. Having David to promote your blog seems like a useful thing as well, as long as it suits you. Sometimes we aren't as “ready” as we might want to be, but life keeps moving, so you just have to keep up an keep it moving..


Mike:

Perhaps a lot of people use some form of “Other” when trying to express themselves in writing. It is easier than trying to send it out to a blank, faceless wall. I often direct what I write to a specific person or readily identifiable small group of people so I can use their interests, needs, etc., as a sort of topic list for what I write. I must say that I was a little taken aback by your comments though. You get to sounding a little wiser each year, or I get a little dumber, or maybe both. You have indeed made substantial progress! You have some very interesting points about blogs that are quite useful to consider. The hut in the bog analogy comes to life with the addition of the light, bringing about the transition to a blog. What a simple, yet illuminating idea! (No pun intended and, why didn't I think of that?? :)

It is still a matter of some intrigue to have one's blog floating around in the vastness of internet space, wondering if it can hitch a ride by itself, or needs to be latched onto and hauled from location to location by some blog delivery service. Maybe it depends on just how needy one feels about the public reading their blog. That is a question I am not sure I can answer yet.

I should add that I appreciate your thoughtful reply very much, especially since you are developing quite a solid blog-writing career yourself..

Thanks to all of you for your replies..