Some Things Worth Looking At

I've been ambivalent about blogging since its inception and the more people push for credibility in the blogosphere (what an awful term) the more I want to push back. I realize I'm well on way to being a crusty old fart who stands on street corners and rails against modern evils such as the automobile and the printing press, but the more blogs I read about people's weekend shopping trips or their cat's latest misadventures in the world of kitty litter, the more I recognize that the truly worthy blogs are just newspaper columns in disguise -- researched, well-thought out and well-written. To provide a thin veneer of credibility to my argument, check this article.

The best part: "At the recent Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, there was a fascinating panel featuring writers whose books were written in what time they could spare from their day jobs. Inevitably, blogging was presented as an attractive alternative — it doesn't take much time, and it is a method of publicly expressing oneself (like finger-painting, I thought to myself, but never mind). D.J. Waldie, among the finest of our part-time scriveners, in effect said "fine." But remember, he added, blogging is a form of speech, not of writing."

If you've ever sat through a creative writing class, then you'll enjoy this article.

"But writing isn’t a personal or private enterprise. It’s an attempt to change consciousness and change the world. In his book The Ethics of Rhetoric, Richard Weaver says that the right to utter a sentence is one of the world’s greatest freedoms. It is the “liberty to handle the world, to remake it, if only a little, and to hand it to others in a shape which may influence their actions.” Speech and writing constitute what Weaver calls “the office of assertion,” a force adding itself to the other forces of the world. Writing is power. If you write well, you can have an impact."

Amen brother, amen.