Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Start With "Once Upon A Time"

So I've been blogging and reading blogs for a couple of weeks, and have decided that most bloggers are not very interesting. I have found only one blog that really reads like a story or memoir, Instructions to the Double, which was the inspiration for starting my blog in the first place. "Tessy," at the time a 26-year-old nanny living in Brooklyn, was not only an excellent writer but was also very open about all of her experiences and let-the-reader-be-damned... whether the reader happened to be anonymous strangers like me, her Boyfriend, or her employer. Unfortunately, she "learned her lesson" when her employer slammed her in a New York Times Sunday Styles piece, and since that time, her writing (in a new blog) has become far less open.

Through BlogExplosion (see link in my sidebar), I've had the opportunity to "surf" hundreds of blogs for 30 seconds at a time and, in return, receive more traffic to my own blog. Most of these blogs, including my own, read like a collection of essays on whatever comes to mind, instead of like a diary or collection of short stories. While there are those who try their hand at erotica, most yammer on about their almost always liberal political leanings.

Then again, you may ask, what was I expecting? Perhaps hoping for the best in blogs was like imagining that spam might be interesting?

I actually did make a pledge to myself in a recent journal entry to write more interesting stuff by being more "well-read" -- not well-read in the traditional sense of the word (i.e., the classics... War and Peace, Shakespeare, Plato), but in a more eclectic sense of the word (i.e., the classics plus...The New York Times, The New York Post, Wall St. Journal, Cosmopolitan, trashy beach reading, other people's blogs...and so on).

In that vein, today I received a nice box from Barnes & Noble:
The Interruption of Everything -- Terry McMillan
The Lake of Dead Languages -- Carol Goodman
The Mermaid Chair -- Sue Monk Kid
The Sweet Hereafter -- Russell Banks

So I am saving up all the traffic credits that I earn from BlogExplosion by surfing O.P.B. for a day when I have some really compelling content here...perhaps the day the Desperate Housewives DVD comes out, or the day after the new season starts in October...I'll let you know.

8 comments:

Me said...

I agree that not a lot of blogs are interesting enough but there are indeed some that grab your attention.

Anonymous said...

When I began blogging before BE last August I only read my own--did it as a writing exercise.

When I found BE people began reading my blog and I surfed blogs--hated them.

But I found that I generally liked the people who commented on my blog. And I began reading their blogs.

Blogging's a whole new world and one that I believe is going to revolutionize publishing someday.

In March I formed a political blog, Bring it on! with other bloggers I had met on line.

I am more a literary person and am trying to write a memoir online, but politics is in my blood.

See you have a comment from my old friend "anonymous" Ignore them; they're snarky and scuzzy

--josh-- said...

Hey Best. You are right. 99.999% of all blogs are unbearable boring (and then there's mine...) What is up with the hoopla about the "blogosphere"? When does a noisy din become a "new medium?"

And podcasting. A friend asked me if I was going to get into podcasting, since I'm such a music buff. I told her, no. I was afraid it would take time away from my blog.

Warhol said everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. Now everyone is famous for 15 people.

Played out to its inevitable comclusion, we will all have our own blogs, podcasts, websites, home-based businesses etc., and be so busy with our own content we will have no time for anyone else's. 6 billion blogs, each with one unique visitor a piece. THat is my Utopia.

--ybp--

--josh-- said...

Best:

I had written another, longer comment for you, but I lost it to the Internet ether because I did not realize that I had to verify my existence by typing that maze of letters below in order to post. Is that a new Blogger thing? Is that feature on on my blog now too? Were you getting a lot of posts from artificial intelligence agents?

Anyway, the gist of it-- and this was meant in the nicest way-- was that I didn't quite realize at first that this blog was you, because (this is where things get tricky) it was so beautifully and sharply written. Now, I know, that can sound sort of like an insult. Of course once I imagined you saying these things, I realized it could be no one else, but I don't think I've ever read so much expository writing from you before (at least not unless the phrases "Bree sends..." and "flexible and affordable" were included.)

Did you ever watch Alias? We're catching up, having borrowed the DVDs of season one, and we are hooked. It is sort of a cross between 24 and Thirtysomething, with a chick. (Aside: remember when I wanted Bob from Twin Peaks to kill a different Thirtysomething character each week?) That Michael gut from Thirtysomething is executive producer or something on Alias, and he played a small recurring part in season one, and that other chick, Elliot's wife without the hair, she plays a CIA shrink (but with hair.)

Anyway, I digress. I am going to go put a link to your blog on mine, right after I go visit the Venting Housewife (It is venting, not yenting, correct?)

--ybp--

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, you're right and blogs that start their title with: rantings or musings give me the shivers.

Not that mine is the bees knees though. On the other hand I did notice you blogmarked mine. Thanks for that.

--josh-- said...

Well, my site just got accepted by Blog xplosion, and I've already been spammed in the comment section twice. So I guess now I know why you turned on that ID verification thingie. Kind of a tough price to pay; I fear blocking the robots and shills will also make the 6 people who actually read my blog less likely to comment.

PS: my ID verification word for the day is "hzsqhyvx." I'm going to try and use it in a sentence 10 times today.

--josh-- said...

Best, if I read "Think and Grow Rich," will I then grow rich? It is imperative that I know, especially after my unfortunate experience with "Think and Grow Man-Breasts."

By the way, myword of the day is "mxfkk," which looks like the computer from 2001 trash talking. "Dave? You are a dirty mxfkk-er."

Anonymous said...

Hello and thanks for the blogmark (what dumb word) on BE.

PS your assessment of the quality of storytelling in the blogosphere (another dumb word) is right on the money. Not enough people out there who know how to spin a yarn.

Also, it seems as if there are a lot of peeps writing about how they're gonna write, which seems like a strange purgatory . (or is it blogatory)