Has my blog been quiet lately, or what? Last month, without really planning to, I took a break that quite frankly, began to look definitive. And this, National Poetry Month, no less -- both here and south of the border.
Work of late, freelance deadlines, tax deadlines, & personal stuff don't begin to account for my flagging interest. True, Facebook, and to a lesser extent Twitter, have siphoned off much audience and responsiveness... a phenonomenon that has been remarked upon by far more active and popular bloggers than moi-meme. This blog, like many others, has gotten quiet. Look at all the goose eggs after postings below. Attention here, as everywhere, as been fragmented, diluted, dissolved by the sheer excess.
For a long time -- five years or so -- I've posted and crossposted for the love of it, to contribute in some humble way to the store of knowledge and reflection, the availability of certain poems and poets. I've enjoyed the immediacy of layout, publication, and feedback -- the chance to hone critical skills, to write some things that evolved into articles elsewhere and even poems, to make some key social connections. It's been a good run.
But underlying the present ennui is a resentment: why should the Great Pharoah Google reap all the profits (and those profits are indeed gargantuan) while we cyberslaves toil to build their palaces and pyramids? Now that they're scanning & photographing everything under the sun and even much of what's beyond it, I'm inclined to tell them to go fuck themselves. And shove this humble contribution up their ass. As for me, I'll go off and read books in print, write books in print, write my diaries in private (where I can vent without the shit hitting the fan), and cultivate real friendships with people whom I can speak to and touch.
With that, I press DELETE!
Out, out, brief (electronic) candle!
Such fun, rhetoric.
For all that, I can still see that this blog will have its uses. I've enjoyed writing this, for instance. I've got a review coming up in the Rover: some poems I don't have room for there, I'll post here. I've got a few good posts in hand. Even as I feed the monster, I still find pleasure in sharing with whomever, whenever, through this medium. Yes, the slavemaster is gentle, if inexorable.
3 comments:
I posted a similar conclusion recently. Readers are disappearing, as are comments. I post lrss often and only for fun, linking important things to my facebook profile where far more people comment. I can post a new status there and get 15 comments to some.
I would rather be a bird than twitter. Facebook is okay for instant connection to your loved ones, but you cannot say much of substance there for lack of space. If you do place too much text in the box the page gives a 'read more' link that allows for minimal entry. Some who pay for FB get more access. I still love the blogoshere. I don't have as much to say as I used too. Hopefully it won't go the way of the dinosaur eh. BTW, I used to live on Marcil between Terre Bonne and Cote St. Luc. Be well
Pris, that's what I'm using Facebook for too... and mouse, I agree with you about the limitations of FB. It might be that Facebook-twitter go the way of the dinosaur, and blogs remain. Right now, if you type "how to" into Google, one of the auto-completes is "how to delete your identity from Facebook." Obviously a popular request.
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