A question I've always found very easy to answer and am willing to give you my opinion here and now - dogs. They're loyal, funny, clever and obedient - the ideal partner.
But as reported yesterday it's not such an easy choice between blog or novel - but only in terms of my time spent writing. It got me thinking, however, that in terms of the choice between reading a whole host of blogs or just one novel, the choice is easy - it would have to be the novel. Maybe Sontag was right after all.
Sod keeping in touch and relevancy and immediacy and the directness of the form - if forced to choose it's Tolstoy over Scoble any day of the week.
Ok, but is it a cats/dogs decision? Or have I fallen into the old, wannabe-hack trick of treating blogs as a literary form rather than a communication vehicle? So maybe I do come back to yesterday's conclusion - all have validity. And you know, if forced to choose between a phone and a novel, the latter would still be the winner.
There is the tiny matter that I've probably read more words written by Scoble than Tolstoy but I have just bought Anna Karenina after not finishing it as an over-ambitious teen (no doubt turned over for the more immediate educational benefits of The World is Full of Married Men or similar).
So am I any closer to a decision on where to spend my time? Give over. I might have discovered a blog-as-methadone replacement, however, although Ficlets may well be even worse for me - highly addictive, never ultimately satisfying = literary angel dust?
PS Due to lack of free time and need for a low maintenance pet, we have been thinking about getting a kitten. Yeah they're so clever and independent, aren't they?
3 comments:
Surely, the whole point about blogging is that what you write is immediate and doesn't bear re-reading and deep thought? I'm not suggesting that us bloggers aren't capable of meaningful comment, but I know that what I type goes down on the "e-page" and stays there, with only short recourse to check spelling and grammar.
When I write bits of my novel (will I get there before I'm 70?), I go back and agonise over certain words and phrases.
The same can be said for reading them - blogs are a kind of short story, while a novel takes time to worm its way into your consciousness.
Just a thought...
Yep I'm with you - I think I'm struggling between caring about grammar and sentence construction a bit, but realising that the form is more about a conversation than a piece of art (which is why stories like "blogging is so over" recently don't really make sense - what like talking is over? and writing is over?).
Screw the grammar, it's about cats you fool.
Cats, cats cats. Dogs smell and eat their own poo.
Case closed
By Robin who doesn't have or want a f-ing google id.
Post a Comment