Monday, May 2, 2011

Am I now a blogger? 'Fraid so.

Thinking of myself as a "blogger" is quite strange.  There's no small part of me that wants to say, "I'm not a blogger, I just happen to have started a blog, in order to ..." (insert whatever dubious justification comes to mind).  But surely the technical definition of "blogger" is "one who or that which blogs."  And I am blogging.  So I suppose I should just admit it.  I'm a blogger.

There.  That felt better.

It's natural to wonder, "Which audience am I writing for?"  But that raises a prior question ("raises," not "begs"—there is a difference!): "Is there an audience at all?"  That one does write, or should write, for an audience is not self-evident.  Once I fancied that writing should be a kind of pure self-expression, not necessarily "for" any audience.  Hearing a lecture by Bernard Williams when I was in graduate school persuaded me otherwise.  Ridiculing the concept of "pure enquiry," he suggested that philosophers who write are well advised to examine their motives for writing, and to direct their work to a specific audience.  Is the principle universal?  His answer, delivered in that Oxbridge accent that is really hard to argue with: "Ninety percent of those who say ‘I just have to write’ are stupid.  But more than 0% of them are geniuses."

My dissertation director once said: "We write for our friends."  I'm not sure I can do better than that.  At any rate, I suppose that as a blogger (I said it!), I am writing for my friends.  And myself.

Not every entry, I promise, will be a reflection on the act of blogging.  It's just something I've got to get out of my system.  I suppose I could imagine a blog about blogging.  But that would be a meta-blog.  While I'm doubtless some sort of metaphysician, to the very end, I simply can't handle being a meta-blogger.

4 comments:

  1. Once I fancied that writing should be a kind of pure self-expression, not necessarily "for" any audience. Hearing a lecture by Bernard Williams when I was in graduate school persuaded me otherwise. Ridiculing the concept of "pure enquiry," he suggested that philosophers who write are well advised to examine their motives for writing, and to direct their work to a specific audience. ... My dissertation director once said: "We write for our friends." I'm not sure I can do better than that.

    Good to hear such sound advice in my own grad-school years. I'm struggling with an audience problem right now, in fact. ... So now I suppose I must only decide for *which* friends I'm writing! :-)

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  2. This *is* a problem, particularly if you have a wide variety of friends, as I'm sure you do!

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  3. I blog for myself and for about 5 of my friends who read it consistently but typically send me email responses and comments instead of posting them directly on my blog. There is something cathartic about sending your words into the blog-o-sphere. Looking forward to reading more.

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  4. Thanks for turning me on to your blog, Jenn! I plan to read it regularly, not least because you have so many good ideas about eating and drinking in Austin. It's fast become one of our favorite cities.

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