Anti-blogging
I don’t know why I should be feeling so utterly miserable today. Perhaps it’s the fact that all the scheming, spinning, and slimy slithering is finally catching up with Blair and the days of my mocking Prescott are numbered. I think it’s also a culmination of writing solidly for weeks and not having much of a break. Writing short stories and even novels is much more pleasurable than writing a screenplay where every line has to pay. No wonder it’s making me grumpy.
Did I mention that I’ve also given up coffee?
But what cheered me up a little this morning was a nice new link to my other blog and the suggestion that The Spine is politically neutral. I guess, in this case, neutrality is a good thing. I always intended The Spine to be an anti-blog. Even the 200+ taglines that appear randomly below the title should prove this, though I have already been listed elsewhere (quite worthily) as being ‘top website for Swedish hobos’ and ‘the pocket-sized website’. I love that. But the point is: I have always deliberately avoided giving too much (if any) of my own opinion and certainly no ‘constructive conclusions’ over at The Spine. The order of the day is cheap jokes to keep my spirits up. I guess that I also instinctively rebel at the usual bloggerly habits. Even when I’m being more serious here on this blog, I do so with the intent that I don’t intend to promote it. I just don’t subscribe to the basic belief that everybody has a distinctive voice that’s worth a listen. The best blogs generally have the same values as the best print journalism, but for the rest… Well, there are only so many long worthy essays about the Middle East that I can handle in a day. The problem with the web is that too many people sincerely believe that they’re the next Robert Fisk. I always thought that one Robert Fisk was more than enough. Besides, who’d really want to be the next?
Pinned to my noticeboard, I have a quote from a letter that Jonathan Swift wrote to Pope, where he said ‘I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth’. D.H. Lawrence thought that Swift’s scatological humour was psychologically unhealthy and led to his insanity. It might be true, but Lawrence perhaps ignores the nobler side of Swift, the side that enjoyed great friendships. I think I’ll leave The Spine to continue to gather my spleen and to help keep me sane. I’ll be a better person here and in the things I refuse to post to the web.
Damn, I really want a cup of coffee…