Once again I find myself pondering the point of my blog. It's been going now since 2011, so I intend to keep it going indefinitely. But I often find myself what direction I should take it in-- if any particular direction.
When I started it, I had the idea that it would be fairly newsy, essentially a series of responses to attacks on the Catholic Church in the Irish media. That idea didn't last very long.
I sometimes wonder whether it should be more "substantial"-- for instance, book reviews, movie reviews, commentary on current issues, articles on aspects of Irish Catholic history, that kind of thing. This would involve a fair amount of disciplined research.
I suppose the most recurrent theme in my blog is "fascination". I constantly seem to be trying to communicate some fascination or other, often a rather elusive one. Those are the posts that mean the most to me, but I don't know how much they appeal to other people. Communicating fascination might be more the province of poetry-- but it's hard to get anyone to read poetry.
This whole business of fascination is, inevitably, fascinating in itself. Human beings are remarkable creatures. One would assume we have the same basic bundle of desires and objectives, each of which would ultimately boil down to some animalistic imperative. But in fact, as C.S. Lewis once wrote, "we are inveterate poets". It seems to me that what draws us to any activity, pursuit, or allegiance is usually that our imagination has been seized in some way. And everybody's imagination seems to react in a very individual way. So perhaps it's rather futile to attempt to communicate a fascination.
I must admit I was rather disappointed that my "Irishness in Everyday Life" didn't get more of a response. I even asked various Facebook friends who are still on Facebook to share it. It seemed to me like the kind of thing that might spark a wider discussion.
Are blogs passé? I can remember back when they were almost comically modern.
The funny thing about my blog is that virtually nobody I know in "real life" actually reads it. On the other hand, as more and more people are speaking out against the ruling ideology in Ireland, I'm quite proud I have proof that I was opposing it for a long time, when it was neither profitable nor popular.
I discovered your blog in February of this year and I have enjoyed reading it since then. It may not be a super disciplined study of anything in particular but that may be part of its charm in that there are ideas that warrant consideration even in seemingly random ponderings on current culture that actually when taken together form a coherent idea of the world.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I really appreciate the kind comment. Yes, I've often hoped that the eccentric style might have a charm of its own, and I do hope that my view is coherent. I'm always most interested in picking up on things that other people don't seem to have.
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