“I’d be willing to venture that the relationships being built around blogs are different only in degree, rather than kind, with the relationship readers have with novels or poetry.” From The Hanged Man, Posted Jan. 19, 2004.
In exploring the question of who and why of both sides of blogging, I think the above statement by Marc in his post gives a better picture of this form of writing and reading. Though obviously it’s complimentary and a definition that any blogger would most willingly latch onto, it also has the ring of truth. Read the rest of his post to see his thought process as he comes to this conclusion, as it is honest and open and not all quite as flattering as the above quote, but I do like the comparison to the relationship with narratives of the novel and poetic forms.
It’s true, of course, that we only send our readers to the sites that reflect our own views unless to prove a point of contrast, and there’s always a danger of exclusion to produce a sort of mutual admiration society internet style. And so, with an embarrassing lack of proper humility, I do want to point out that his link to Spinning is embellished with one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about my writing efforts:
“Reading her blog is like taking a journey with a mental archeologist who is tapping sections of the brain with a tiny hammer to determine what’s below.” Thanks, Marc.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
To me, the literary form weblogs most closely resemble is oral story telling. A blogger tells his or her story around the communal campfire and then that story is repeated by others, with the audience chiming in now and then with murmurs of assent or howls of protest.