I have been blogging at this location for the last fifteen years, and it is with pleasure that I continue to do so — but perhaps with a much-changed mission. When authors I know first started blogging, it was a way of communicating with people. I look back at the posts from five-six years ago, and I am surprised to see how many comments there are, sometimes a rich ongoing discussion inspired by something in my post, or sometimes an exchange of very useful information. But such a community is rare now on a blog. We have switched our allegiance to Facebook, where an announcement of a post does not actually mean someone will follow the link and read it. Still, they will express approval for the general idea by clicking the "like" button. And then we move even farther out, to a mere 280 characters in a tweet, to announce our blog post and receive a few "hearts" and maybe a re-tweet — but still rare responses on the blog itself. Those kinds of conversations are pretty much over. When I went down my list of bloggers, I was surprised to discover how many had packed it in for the elegant, quick-release variants of Facebook and Twitter. And then there is Instagram, where the totality of an idea must be summed up in perfectly constructed images and hashtags.
Don't get me wrong — I am not really complaining, just observing the transition and what it means for dinosaurs like me who still love to blog, even if it is for an audience of one. When I started blogging, I did so for the Journal of Mythic Arts and the Endicott Studio. We wanted to be a resource of myth, art, and folklore goodness. We wanted to share the wonderful work done by so many talented people. So, the posts were always aimed outward. When we archived The Journal of Mythic Arts and the Endicott Studio, blogging finally shifted to the personal. I set up my blog, In the Labyrinth, in 2007 and wondered where it might take me.
What I discovered was a profound shift — from promoting others to promoting myself and my work — and it took a while to figure that out. How much personal information to share, family photos, events, favorite meals — all the early posts that now seem so much better suited for Facebook. And somewhere along the way, I also wanted to review books I loved and write short critical essays on literary culture, folklore, my writing, and what inspired me. I am pretty eclectic, I know that — a magpie who is happy to post on the intellectual roots of Garcia Lorca's "Duende" to theatrical work with trance-inducing masks, to Medieval bad-boys who wrote pornographic poetry, deconstructing a brilliant sentence by Joseph Conrad, Balzac's treaties on Coffee drinking (which bordered on the hallucinogenic), Russian artists, Medieval Manuscripts and Irish poets, and The Voynich Manuscript. I do try and promote my work by sharing my research notes and excerpts, my struggles sometimes with getting a story right, and the ever important announcement of a completed new work.
I understand that I am writing a journal, and that actually pleases me. I am less concerned with how far a post of mine travels, but rather that I can call up the evolution of my ideas over time — a long time — and revisit past ideas—a body of my thought. But…in the interest of not feeling quite so lonely, I go every day now to other people's blogs that I find interesting, and I make a point of responding to the posts, asking questions, and sharing my thoughts on the subject where appropriate. I am planning once a week to share the best of the blog posts for the week that I found, and I encourage you, if interested, to visit them and respond.
Art credits: The inestimable Edward Hopper.
It was painful to see Endicott Studio go away, though I was happy to see you and Terri continue with blogging. That place was an amazing and inspiring repository for so much wonder. I discovered many good books and talented artists by hanging out in that virtual space. I’m not afraid to say that all change is not for the better, and I hate to see the influence that the “like” culture has had on me. Over the past few months I have made an effort to spend much less time on FB and more time actually having real conversations. I like that it keeps me connected, but at the same time I need to make more effort to make those connections count, and not be in such a hurry to like and move on.
I agree — it is both the genius and tragedy of our modern culture that we can reach out in so many instant ways that we are either overwhelmed by too much stimulation or just too used to having our conversations, our reading, our interaction down to a fast-food bite size. I have to discipline myself to read people’s posts on line — and not fall into that scrolling trap! I miss Terri a great deal too — England is so far and neither of us has that sort of discretionary income required to fly such distances. And she is famous for avoiding emails when they pile up — so I am being subversive by writing and mailing my letters to her. Slow-writing. I feel so retro!
ah (((Midori))) I still prefer a good blog to the shallow quickness of Facebook but have to say it was your link to this post on Facebook that brought me here this morning at 5am whilst having a little break from stitching. I love your magpie eyes & hope you keep sharing your thoughts for many years to come!
I admire your subversive ploy! My wife is a consummate letter-writer. It really is one of her gifts. Every week she sends letters and cards to her mother, to others in the nursing home where her mother lives that she has met on her visits, to relatives and friends. I love that she does that and I frequently hear from the recipients how much it means to them.
I too have to try not to just quickly slide past what people are posting. I do have at least one friend who never could get himself to blog but he essentially does that on FB now, posting long reviews, but not too long, about what he has read or is reading. I appreciate how he is using FB as it is, to my mind, bringing what I liked about blogging into this more widely-used forum.
Thank you Mo — I drop by your blog every now and then to check the amazing progress you are making with your luminous stitched moon! Such a painstaking process but such a fabulous outcome. I feel remiss that I have not mentioned that to you. I do have a new section on the website Handwork and Craft — and I am beginning to use it to share not only my own handwork, but others that I admire. So I look forward to posting on your beautiful full moon.
Letters in the mail are such a gift. My husband hand writes them (I have to type because my handwritting is too idiosyncratic to be read by anyone but me!). He sends out one or two every month! And interestingly enough — he also uses facebook as a blog –writing long reflections about new, his faith, martial arts, life — I love it! Of course peppered with meme series that usually intended to have fun recounting our long married life. I think I need the blogging format because I love putting in art and illustrations — lots of them if I can and facebook isn’t as visually pleasing when all the photos are jammed together. I do admit, I loved all the book covers and the focus on SFF artists you used to do. (No pressure! ) I should have also told you more often how much I appreciated seeing them.
“Idiosyncratic”…I love that. My own handwriting has gotten so bad over the years. It is a true struggle to try to write slowly enough to make my words legible. When I’m writing my thoughts are going so far ahead of where my hand is that my handwriting suffers greatly.
Well you did it, you inspired me and I did a book review that also ended up having some personal reflection in it, so well done you!
You and Terri have long been touch points for me in the blogging world. I’m so happy you’re still at it. I don’t usually comment, but I do live reading your posts!
I just was introduced to you through the link that Carl placed in his post, and I’m glad for the introduction. I think I’ll enjoy exploring your site, although I’m unsure how to follow you. I don’t see an RSS feed, or a place to subscribe through email. Perhaps Twitter will do it, if you announce entries there. That’s the only social media site I use — primarily to post links to my blog, when I think about it — which probably tells you something about me.
When I began blogging nearly ten years ago, I refused to even put a “like” button on my blog. I wanted to nurture conversation, and felt a quick click of a “like” button would militate against that. Development was slow, but consistent, and even though many readers have fallen away (for a whole variety of reasons, including death) many of my early readers still are with me, and the kind of community I had hoped to nurture is real.
It pleases me that people are willing not only to comment, but to engage in a substantive way. Best of all, I’ve been able to leave comments open on every post through all the years, and only once have had to ask someone to re-write a comment to remove vulgar language. Even better, my readers include conservatives and liberals, scholars and housewives, artists and midwestern farmers, atheists, Muslims, Jews, and Orthodox Christians. When I think about the respect with which we engage one another, it’s the best antidote I can imagine to what’s going on in the larger world.
Well, enough. I’m just happy to have found you, and I’ll look forward to exploring your site. Now I can go back and finish reading Carl’s entry!
So many bloggers, myself included, have written posts like this over the years as blogging and the blog community spirit have dwindled away. Now they come more infrequently as people seem to have surrendered to the silence. It’s been a little like watching the stages of grief play out within a community. Such a shame. I’m deeply grateful to those who continue writing, because blogging brings so many blessings for writer and readers. I know my life is improved by the wisdom, insights, and art shared by bloggers like you, Terri, Mo, etc. Thank you for your lovely blog, and sorry I’ve been too shy to comment more often over the years.
Thanks Stace! I am glad that you stop by and I enjoy blogging — I just re-read a comment you wrote a long time ago on the Captain Alatriste books! You were not happy with the third book…though you enjoyed The Fencing Master — that was a post from 2008! It’s cool to discover such a long history of meeting here.
Hi Linda — it sounds like you have a wonderful place for people to come and share ideas! I use bloglovin (the little “B” up on the right hand column next to the twitter birdy) If you click that it will give you an option to subscribe. And the updates come into your email. (Not too msny of them! )
Hi Sarah –no need for an apology. I have been known to visit quietly a lot of blogs that I like but am not sure how to comment on (and then there are the blogs where it is so difficult to get through the process!). I think there will always be a core of us — using blogging not to sell products, but to engage in writing about personal passions. I miss the days of a big audience — but I love writing about those things that inspire and educate me, I like keeping my research notes, my scattered thoughts all in one place (and in a format that’s easy to retrieve with subject categories!) And I don’t have to decipher my handwriting. So, I will be here for the forseeble future!
As a small-time blogger and a long-time lurker of a number of excellent blogs, I’m a bit sad to see that a lot of people go the route of the instantaneous ‘like’ option; I myself am guilty of that, though lately I’m making more of an effort to engage. I’m glad there are still people out there who blog on a more personal level, sharing ideas and passions and keeping that ‘old-school’ blog spirit alive.
Me too! It’s almost as if we need to re-assert ourselves and our value as an online reading experience. But I also realize I need to practice what I preach — hence my decision to visit and comment on other bloggers’ sites more regularly. There is so much wonderfulness out there and I want to support it. (P.S. adding your own Armchair Amusements to my “What’s Cooking” blog list.
It’s true that blogging seems to be on the down curve in the recent year or so. I’ve been following quite a few and not all of them are still writing, at least not regularly. I mainly follow books blogs or blogs about writing.
It’s hard to write a comment on a blog dealing with the kind of books you don’t read. I’m starting to think people want more than just books to talk about these days. It’s also the lack of time and maybe the desire to engage in quick chat rather than a proper conversation.
I see you have posts about writing which I love (both the writing and the facts that you write about writing) so I’ve subscribed to your blog and hope to visit often in the future. You may want to make the subscribing process easier – that bloglovin’ icon would have gone unnoticed if someone here in the comments hadn’t asked how to subscribe to your blog.
I’m off to read your writing posts. By the way, I came here via Carl’s blog.
Hi Delia, thank you for stopping by — Carl is one of my favorite bloggers, so it means a lot to me that he mentioned me. And yes — I too realized the problem with the too small Bloglovin icon and will be changing that today to make it more visible. Thanks again.
OMIGOD!!! I need to step up my blogging game now!!! I love The Innamorati btw!!!
Hi Emgee, thank you for the nice words on the Innamorati! And yes!! Let’s have a good time on our blogs and share. It’s fun.
Reading this post made me miss the blogs I used to follow, like the Posner-Becker blog on economic issues of the day. Your blog is an outpost in social media, reminding us to keep the social in the media.