Doug is pondering the lifespan and life-cycle of the blog:
This quote really moved me to think about the various motivations for blogging, and to wonder if there isn’t a natural lifespan for a blog that exhausts itself like any other project a person takes on.
These questions are intimately tied to the “Why we Blog” question (which would often be more accurately phrased as “Why do we Continue to Blog”).
I guess this depends our definition of “blog.” It would be non-sensical to ask about “the various motivations for writing poems” and wondering if there isn’t “a natural lifespan for poetry.” But it would make perfect sense to question continuing to write sonnets or limericks in particular.
How much of one’s blog is the vehicle and how much the form? I see blogs as a personal publishing platform that runs dry only when words run dry… but that’s because I don’t believe blogging to be a particular form, “just” a vehicle.
Blog writing can take on forms that can eventually be repressive, but that’s no different than any kind of writing, is it? If our stories carefully jotted down in our moleskines with our favorite fountain pens are getting stale do we talk about the lifespan of handwriting? I hope not– I hope we just change our emphasis and try to write better stories… or better pieces in some other form.
A truly deathless thread. Tell me, Chris, exactly what _is_ “Art”? B^) We’ve been down that road before, eh?
Lest you think me snide, I actually dropped by to eat a little crow. I emailed the other day, whining about how email lists and blogs give only the illusion of connectedness. But today I got “email” via a blog comment because one of my oldest friends couldn’t find my email address…but has been commenting on the blog.
Well, when I’m as wrong as this, on a matter about which I’ve been quite publicly and privately annoying, it seems the only honorable thing to do is say so. That you’ve provided, in the form of this particular post, such a thematically appropriate place for my confession is just one of those synchronous synergies for which we love the tech, eh?
Anyway, the comment you quoted carries a clue to the difference between your view and Doug’s. To Doug a blog is, apparently, a project. To the extent that a blog is a project, tied topically to a theme or activity (such as my repeal-aumf.org) then indeed it can run out of steam (or, as I hope is the case with repeal-aumf.org, go through cycles of activity.) But in its earliest incarnations web logs were more akin to a diary or journal. As with your moleskin, if the idea is to craft stories that wow ya, well, that runs dry. If it simply serves a lifetime habit of observing, self or others or environment, then it is limited only by our lives. It might also be described as a cart/horse issue: Do you write because it serves some project? Or do you create projects as vehicles for your writing? Substitute blog for write and I think we’re in the ballpark.
Peace. Looking forward to a cuppa w/ ya in a couple of weeks.
I’d say the lifespan of a blog is dependent on the subject and its relevance to its readers and its writer’s motivation or monetary incentive!. We’ll never be short of worthy narratives (I hope) so the potential is certainly there for an eternal blog!