I was always reluctant to blog. Why? Because I had a
misconception of what it meant to blog. What did I mistakenly think blogging
was?
I thought blogging was either "navel-gazing" or
"incendiary amateur politics." The story of why people blogged went
one of either two ways in my mind:
(1) People blogged in order to share what they had for
dinner, or information about their bowel movements, or pictures of the cool new
sweater they bought for their poodle "Snowball."
Or,
(2) People blogged in order to share their half-baked
reflections on politics or to express their extremist opinions about political
issues they probably knew nothing about.
Yes, I have an irritating cynical strain in me.
Let me be clear (and I think this is highly appropriate
given the focus of my blog): this vision of blogging was a
"fantasy-horror" I had concocted with no basis in the reality of what
blogging actually is.
How was I able to weave such a repulsive illusion? Well,
I never read blogs of course. I formed an opinion based on what I heard in
snatches of conversation or what I gleaned from an occasional glance at a newspaper
in an airport.
How did blogging transform from "navel-gazing"
into a favorite pastime to engage in while drinking my morning coffee?
I started reading blogs.
I can't retrace the many aimless digital wanderings that
landed me at the two blogs that I now identify as, say, my "gateway
drugs," if you will, into the blogosphere. They do deserve mentioning.
The Blog of Black Gate Magazine: This is the blog
associated with the heroic fantasy magazine Black Gate, and they are always
posting on something I find extremely interesting regarding fantasy, fantasy
art, sword and sorcery, contemporary writers, etc.. I started reading it,
commenting, and reading some more. Against any plans, I became engaged in a
brief dialog played out in the comments on a post that discussed what made a
science-fiction/fantasy/horror classic, which was a lot of fun. I was hooked.
Grognardia: This is a blog that a lot of people involved
in OSR (Old School Roleplaying) read. I find this blog so interesting because
the writer knows so much about a hobby that has influenced my writing and my
love of genre literature in unquantifiable ways. To a large extent I would say
my writing has always been a struggle to recreate that feeling of wonder I had
when I first started playing Dungeons and Dragons as a young child. I feel as
though the folks who blog and read about OSR are kindred spirits to me.
What did these blogs teach me?
Blogging is less about sharing your personal feelings and
more about building communities about some greater thing: a hobby, an issue, an
art form, etc..
Sure, one shares their personal feelings, day to day
encounters, opinion, hobbies, etc.. on a blog, but your personal contribution
is not the main point. The point of blogging (this is my current impression of
it) is to interface with communities, to build communities of like-minded
people so that something like, say, fantasy-fiction or old school roleplaying,
can be given fuller life. In a strange way the hobby (OSR) or the art (genre
fiction) subordinates the individuals who write the blogs. In other words: you
start out expressing a personal opinion on an issue… and you end up enhancing
and growing something larger than yourself.
New Year's Resolution: to keep blogging.
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