It is hard not to start this off like a letter, but since this blog is addressed to nobody in particular, I suppose a "dear ____" wouldn't work anyway. "Dear nobody" sounds too fatalistic, since I hope that someone will be reading, although I'm sure someone out there has used it before - and I wouldn't want to make them feel badly about it. We've all been to places, emotionally, that we aren't proud of. I suppose I shouldn't speak of "we" in this blog, either, since it really is, by definition, entirely to do with my perspective.
Speaking of which, I would like to take this opportunity to explain the title of my blog. It's really a great exercise in making yourself feel absurd and pretentious to try to name your own blog. It would seem silly to title a diary - both overly ambitious (few diaries are published) and also a contradiction, since a diary really isn't meant for any audience but your own future self, perhaps, or maybe the grandchildren, if you turn out to have any. But I find it so much fun to read other people's blogs (thanks, Ethan!). I have so many things rollicking about in my own head during the day that I never say to anyone, and I have friends in far away place who I don't get to talk to as often as I'd like. Having given up on a clever title that refers to me or my perspective in a clever yet humble way, I chose to take a phrase from an author I admire. This is what I do when I can't express myself adequately. And I hope that some day I will contribute at least one phrase that will perhaps do someone else a bit of good and pass the favor along. The phrase I've borrowed was written by Joan Didion for her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, which is an excellent example of a diary that ought to have been published, and was, since it reads on the literary level as well as being relatable in the best way. I almost forgot, the line reads like this: “I would need to locate the dissonance between the person I thought I was and the person other people saw.”
Since I'm much concerned with music at present (listening to it as well as playing it at home on my own piano, which was in bad need of its recent tuning), I thought this would set the subtle yet clever tone that I desired for my own blog title. I thought it only fair that anybody who might read this first entry of my blog should be let in on the meaning as a reward.
Speaking of which, I would like to take this opportunity to explain the title of my blog. It's really a great exercise in making yourself feel absurd and pretentious to try to name your own blog. It would seem silly to title a diary - both overly ambitious (few diaries are published) and also a contradiction, since a diary really isn't meant for any audience but your own future self, perhaps, or maybe the grandchildren, if you turn out to have any. But I find it so much fun to read other people's blogs (thanks, Ethan!). I have so many things rollicking about in my own head during the day that I never say to anyone, and I have friends in far away place who I don't get to talk to as often as I'd like. Having given up on a clever title that refers to me or my perspective in a clever yet humble way, I chose to take a phrase from an author I admire. This is what I do when I can't express myself adequately. And I hope that some day I will contribute at least one phrase that will perhaps do someone else a bit of good and pass the favor along. The phrase I've borrowed was written by Joan Didion for her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, which is an excellent example of a diary that ought to have been published, and was, since it reads on the literary level as well as being relatable in the best way. I almost forgot, the line reads like this: “I would need to locate the dissonance between the person I thought I was and the person other people saw.”
Since I'm much concerned with music at present (listening to it as well as playing it at home on my own piano, which was in bad need of its recent tuning), I thought this would set the subtle yet clever tone that I desired for my own blog title. I thought it only fair that anybody who might read this first entry of my blog should be let in on the meaning as a reward.
1 comment:
hi jenny. i am excited you started a blog. and yes, i will indeed be a regular reader.
-nic
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