I recently made a comment on one of my favorite blog sites; Voix de Michele, that set off a discussion on another favorite blog site, Cleopatra's Kitten.
Both site's posts have given me a lot to think about. Issues that I have been weighing on this site. How much do I post and how personal can it be?
I like to think of this site as a place where I can work out the ramblings in my head while improving my writing. Yet, some of the thoughts involve other people whom some readers know. These are not bad thoughts. I don't want to cause a gossip chain or unintentionally hurt someone.
I want to have the confidence to own this site, much as I own my poetry, whether the readers are there or not .
Julie and Michele have voiced this discussion more eloquently than I. (I am stringing together the sentences from their posts that provoked the most thought.)
Julie: "At the risk of starting a polemic, my theory of audience can be summarized in this way: Traditional readers (of books) give, bloggers take." To elucidate my theory, I think blogs are about the bloggers, not audiences. And I believe that books, journals, and magazines function in the opposite way. But when we blog, we are blogging for ourselves. ...blogs can give a blogger the impetus to continue with his or her writing
Michele: I spent the rest of the day tumbling this comment around in my brain and wondering about the value of maintaining this space as a road map of my emotional truths.... about the value of making the discernment of emotions clear. Perhaps this blog of mine is my rope ladder to self-confidence? Or maybe it's woven more like a fishing net -- infinite numbers of diamonds connected together, anchored to the place I used to be, raising up into the sky, waiting for me to climb higher and higher to a new platform -- to a place where I not only claim my truth, but I believe it.
Musings...
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8 comments:
Isn't springtime wonderful?!?
Speaking for myself, it's as if my brain have thawed and I'm suddenly able to THINK more clearly. And on so many different levels.
The sun is out, and it's a good day for an epiphany or two :)
Julie, Very true. Flowers alone lift my spirits and guide me to take on life more heartily.
Neil, I definetly have mixed thoughts and goals on the subject. Which is why I give props to you and Michele for being able to post what you do.
Michele has done a great job of taking blogging and using it as a tool for her work/art.
Well, I know I'm going to offend a few folks with this, but oh well...
Bloggers who use the internet as a type of personal diary (as opposed to political/social commentary, writing exercises, etc) are emotional exhibitionists. We want everyone to know everything about us and how "different" and "special" we are. If we were really just doing this to explore ourselves (or whatever), we'd just write in a notebook and tuck it away in our rooms like we used to do.
I will, however, concede that it can be a useful tool for communicating with long-distance friends.
Dahli- I disagree to a point. If you are a writer, and I am going to say everyone who posted comments here is, doesn't the term define that writers write, draw from, in some form their experiences?
I am not suggesting that a writer's internal editor should not present in the writing process.
For me their is a honesty line that I am grappling with. How honest can I / should I be?
In my poetry, I am more emotionally stripped down and honest. I want the prose I write, which is more thought based, to work at a similar level. I think, I am not sure, if I achieve a similar level of honesty in prose, I will be a better writer.
I'm somewhere in between Michelle and Dahli, here. I don't blog to be an emotional exhibitionist. There are some things I will never write in my blog; there are some things that are just too personal that I might not even write in that notebook stashed away in my room. And there are some things I would not write for fear of upsetting someone or setting off the chain of unfortunate bad feelings.
However - I don't blog to be all special and different, either. I kind of do it for myself, to just HAVE a place to write my nonsense, and I do it for others who I know enjoy reading it. In that way, I'm an exhibitionist. I know what you want so here it is. If you didn't want it, you wouldn't keep coming back to read it.
In my personal correspondence with friends, that is where I am most honest and open, though I have become more comfortable with revealing things on my blog, over time. Yet the more people who read it (particularly people who know me personally), the more inclined I am to be cautious with what I write - yet I am NOT, because I'm forging on in the spirit of what got me started anyway. I will not censor myself any more than I WOULD have.
Admittedly, yesterday, I refrained from writing something tasteless because I knew my dad would be reading :-) But come on, you understand THAT, right??? It was of a sexual nature and ... I'm just not ready to risk completely burning all my bridges. Yet.
Sorry this turned into a blog post of its own. :-)
I ignored blogging for years, until encouraged to read mariemm3's blog About 3 months ago. It took a little time; I do enjoy it, but it is a double edged sword in terms of topics (particulary in dealing with people you have known) This very subject has been on my mind since I started my recent blog. There is so much I do not write about. At this point, I'd still rather remain somewhat anonymous, though a few already from our pasts know who I am in life outside the Internet. Quite frankly, I have gotten into big personal trouble due to spreading hurtful gossip (at work, primarily) and some of it occured rather recently, so I am very sensitive to all of that. I really work hard not to be an idle gossip. Heck, I seldom even compose personal emails.
I tend to agree with the "emotional exhibitionism" comment, but I don't think that it's all that wrong to be completely self involved. Lots of people like gossip, and the social repercussions of blogging things like gossip and details about your sex life will eventually come back around and bite you in the ass. Just look at what happened to Fish!
I think that blogging is bringing about social change to the degree that people are accounting private life more publicly than ever before. This is an anthropoligists dream and nightmare -- when have we ever known so much about what goes on behind the closed doors of others?
At the same time, when ever before have so many people thought that THEIR ordinary lives were quite so INTERESTING! Our navel gazing and self-interest has grown to epic proportions, really.
And yes, I include myself in that category. All hail democracy!
And thanks for the kind words! Sorry I came so late to the conversation.
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