An excerpt from this post was read tonight on the Open Source radio program's Blogsday 2007 show. It's near the end of the program and edited ever so slightly for radio audiences, but it was just unbelievable to think that something from this little blog, something that I wrote, would be picked up for general consumption.
The show itself is just an incredible listen. It's fascinating to read/hear what other people are writing about and get just that tiniest glimpse into other lives. It also makes me think about what motivates people to blog. I know that for me it was nominally to write about my knitting, but it's also been an interesting and challenging way just to make myself write. I enjoy the way it stretches me to try to write something that will be of interest to others. I've always been a bit of an essayist, but I see so many other writers out there who are much better at it than I and it inspires me and challenges me to push my abilities in this realm.
A really good blog post isn't something that I just sit down and zip out. I will typically spend a couple of hours thinking about what I want to say and how best to say it, because I know that other people will be reading it and I want to do the best I can to give those readers a little insight into what's going on in my head. In some respects it becomes a didactic exercise - how best to release my inner academician - but it's also something more, a part of something bigger. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I think that blogging serves as a mirror of Zeitgeist.
Taken collectively, the blogosphere offers an incredible look at not just the "big issues", but also the tone and shape of our mundane lives at this point in time. And while some people may conflate "mundane" with "boring", I think it's anything but. Okay, perhaps PhD dissertations about life in the "post-modern" world tend towards the dry and self-important, but people's real lives are vibrant, tragic, joyous, tear- and laughter-filled, and sometimes deadly dull and boring, and I want to chronicle my little piece of that, for whomever wants to read it.
That someone felt it was worth reading to the world, well, that's just about the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me.
9 comments:
I don't think my PhD thesis will be dry or self-important - I hope not! I want it to be full of the lives of the people in my study (who include myself, which is very po-mo).
cool!!!!
it really was a great post.
Wow, Mel! What an honor -- I can say, "I knew him when..." :)
Congratulations! That is exciting and amazing! I'm going to go listen to it right now.
Congratulations, Mel! Those of us who read your blog regularly understand completely why they chose to read it on the air.
By the way, I found "Complications" in the library and am a chapter or so in. Very, very interesting and thought-provoking. Thanks!
Serious? The most amazing thing? It IS very cool and wonderful...as are your posts. Yeah, some PhD stuff is pretty focused on small things...but maybe these were burning questions that somebody had (like me right now about the goat eyes...but I do want to know why they don't talk about ungulate and cephalapod eyes as an example of convergent evolution (maybe it's not!)...it's all wings wings wings).
Since my corner of the blogging world is rather limited, it was fascinating to see what others do with the space. An enjoyable tour...thanks for the link and congratulations on your inclusion in the view of the world via blog!
Congratulations, Mel. It's well-deserved, and your thoughts about the meaning of us blogging our pedestrian lives are wonderful and timely for me.
Bravo for the recognition, and also for the lovely shawl.
It was a very powerful post and deserving of the attention! Congratulations!
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