Now We Are Six

In the recent excitement of horizontality, food-pureeing, and opiate-ingestion, I didn't mark my blogday -- March 20 -- with a special post. However, now that my otherwise-swelled head has reduced in size, leaving me with a slightly black eye and gradually-returning cheekbones, I'm thinking how cool it is to be six. I wish we could all get together for a big bash, though today's party fare would consist of something like champagne and gelato, or creme caramels all around. The bottom line is that I'm convinced I have some of the best readers in blogland, and would be delighted to have a more tangible way to thank you for your visits and comments than simply saying so. As a solitary diarist/journal-writer for many many years, I know how much more rewarding, inspiring, and challenging it is to be a blogger. Part of that is the discipline of showing up regularly and finding something fresh to say, for sure, but without you I really doubt I would have kept at it, essentially without a break, for six years.

I've been involved in many many artforms in my life, and this is the one that has been the most satisfying, probably because it's the best fit with who I am. Blogging has changed, though, since I started, and it doesn't surprise me that many people who began back then have now dropped out. We don't see readership growing by leaps and bounds anymore, we don't excitedly watch the multiplying network of links, and I don't think most of us receive (or give) the same amount of enthusiastic feedback we once did.

Some of the best writers have dropped out after a few years for predictable reasons: it got boring; there wasn't the same level of ego-stroking , er, feedback and interchange there once was; other things came up that felt more compelling. And once the headiness of actually having an audience for one's writing wore off, many people began to question the worth of writing in this medium rather than trying to write for traditional publication and thereby win traditional success - and maybe even get paid a little. Having done that too, and being a fairly keen observer of what's happening in traditional publishing, I think it's important to ask ourselves, again, why we write in the first place. Because the future of writing and reading lie here, in digital forms and through online access. The opportunities to "make it" the traditional way in book publishing, journalism, or even by selling articles as a free-lancer, are becoming fewer and fewer. Journalists and publishers are defensive and beleaguered. The world of academic publishing, especially of poetry, is becoming if anything more insulated, rarified, and exclusive. Except for the very top echelons of literature where the established "stars" exist, book publishers -- most already merged into large corporations - are under greater and greater financial pressure, their choices increasingly market-driven; the competition is enormous, it's harder and harder to break in and stay there, and the remunerative gap between big successes and ordinary publication continues to increase.

If our goal is to write - to express ourselves and try to say something creative and meaningful about our lives and our world, hopefully sharing it with others in a way that's free of market restraints - rather than being crushed under the weight of a dying edifice, we'd better do it in a supportive environment. The ephemerality and jumpiness of modern culture and mass media have affected the web a lot now, too. Distraction, and opportunities to fritter away huge amounts of time are everywhere - microblogging and social networking seem, to me, to be mostly that, unless you find ways to use them creatively. I worry that too many talented people these days have simply given up and said, "what's the use," after looking at all these factors. That's too bad because it's essentially bowing to an artistic type of consumerism, where the end product - recognition, money, publicity, critical acclaim - are given more weight than the process itself. Completely understandable in the context of our present world.

Have the human desire to make art, and the integrated life of intellect and creativity, really changed all that much over the centuries? Creating a body of work over time continues to be, I think, a critical goal of the artistic life whether or not one achieves "success" - it's through the process of committing ourselves over years and decades that we finally begin to see ourselves and our work, and become able to put them into the context of our world and the time in which we've lived - and the reward for that is a life more richly lived than many. I find the regular disicipline of writing for the web - along with my online relationships - a great help in that goal because the biggest challenge in art is always, simply, keep at it.

Comments

[Marja-Leena]

Congratulations, Beth, for six years of excellent blogging! I fully agree with just 'keep at it' with one's art, regardless of fame and fortune, dropping readers and stats. You've even kept up the quality, even improved, and that's a challenge in this medium where some of us get a little tired and feel like we are repeating ourselves. The online relationships are a wonderful reward indeed! Here's to many more years!

[Robb]

Kia ora Beth,
Happy Birthday! As someone relatively new to the world of blogging I take a lot of inspiration from places like yours, and others I have connected with. I think I have run the gamut of emotions and reasons you write about, and at times have thought maybe I have run my course. Then I find something else to observe, and slowly come back to the same reasons I kept a hand written journal, to do it for me. Thanks for your place here Beth, and have a great day.
Cheers,
Robb

[dale]

Happy Blogday!

It's been a wonderful journey, eh?

[Natalie]

Beth, happy post-dated blogday and may you have an infinitude of anniversaries, celebrations of your excellent writing.

I agree with all that you say about blogging-fatigue in general and I must admit my enthusiasm is not what it was, for some of the reasons you mention. But I also think that the lessening of blogging activity has something to do with the computer itself as an instrument. While my fascination with this magic screen and all the marvels it contains has not diminished, I am now less willing to spend as much time in front of it as I used to. It demands, after all, one's physical, motionless presence, eyes fixed attentively on this space for many hours. Especially for any kind of graphic work, this takes its toll. Since my writing is mainly done in tandem with visuals of some kind, I suppose I find it harder to commit to a regular output. Or maybe I'm just not disciplined enough!

[Blork]

Happy blogday Beth, you spring chicken!

It's very true that blogging has changed over the years, and it continues to change. But what you say in this post is eternal, when it comes to creative work the key is to keep at it.

[Pica]

Happy Blogday dear Beth. I'm glad you do this because it remind me that ours is in a week too... and I would most certainly forget otherwise.

Six years: it hardly seems possible. Thank you for the consistently high quality of Cassandra Pages.

[Dave]

Happy Blogday, Beth - and thanks for a great post on the state of blogging.

[Nancy]

Happy blogday! Six years! You have amazing stamina, and the quality is consistently high, too. It's great to have you around.

[DDC]

Congratulations! There's a fascination with every new means of communication. Remember CB radio? MUDs? So it's not surprising that some early birds fly off. I've been reading Cassandra for a long time (not from the beginning, but since 2005: see http://tlonuqbar.typepad.com/phfn/2005/06/words_and_image.html), with much appreciation. This entry lights on many of the issues around writing, or rather continuing to write in the face of the obstacles you mention. I sometimes wonder if an entire culture built around the book isn't about to subside. In the meantime it's good that some of us are going on.

[Steve Wylder]

I discovered your blog in 2005 and was inspired to begin blogging myself because of your blog and the people on your blogroll, including Teju Cole, whom you occasionally host. Thank you for your years of excellent writing.

I've noticed that some of my best writing outside the blog has been done when I'm actively blogging. You inspired me to start blogging. Now you're reminding me that i should keep blogging. Thank you.

[Relatively Retiring]

Congratulations and thank you for your always-thought-producing writing and photography.

[leslee]

Happy belated blog-day, Beth, and hope you're continuing to heal well! I'm glad to see you and many others using blogging as a medium for creative excellence. It's very inspiring, and I hope it continues to be fulfilling for you. Lacking the time/energy for any high artistic purposes myself these days, I just use it more as a combination of journal- and letter-writing, chronicling and keeping in touch.

[Dave]

I've been known to say, only half-joking, that one of my ambitions as a blogger is to be the last blogger left standing, long after everyone else runs off after the latest shiny thing. But this post makes it clear I'll have some serious competion. So glad to be sharing the intarwebs with you, Beth.

[Lorianne]

Happy belated blog-day, Beth. The blogosphere is better for your being here.

Just this weekend I was talking with a non-blogging friend about a creativity group she'd gone to, and one of the things the members had debated was the question of whether publishing your work is necessary to validate yourself as a "real" writer OR if writing with an eye to selling your work would cheapen the creative process. As we were talking, I realized this question is something I don't grapple with anymore. Blogging has satisfied whatever desire I might once have had to validate myself as a "real" writer. If X-many years of almost-daily posting doesn't count as "real," I don't know what does...and given the realities of professional publishing you mention here, making a conscious choice NOT to try to write for money makes me feel freer to write how I'd like, as I'm able.

In other words, blogging has given me a forum to do what I like, which is write, in a way that feels satisfying & "muse affirming." Instead of debating whether what I do is "real" or "worthwhile," I'm content simply to do it.

Since you were one of the first bloggers I read, I have you & your example to thank for that.

[Kaycie]

Happy blogday, Beth!

[arvind]

Happy 6th bloggiversary Beth!!

[Martine]

Joyeux bloganniversaire! C'est toujours un grand plaisir de te lire, année après année. J'espère que tu iras mieux bientôt!

[Jean]

Happy Blogiversary, Beth! Six years: quite a while, huh? Thank you so much for being here and writing what you write, so beautifully, and for inspiring me. And I very much agree with what you say about it all above.

[Teresa]

Well, I'm glad you've said all this. And I'd like to add that since I usually either weep or sing as I write (poems, letters, blog posts, anything), another reason to write is to sing/weep.

Teresa

[EJ]

Congratulations. Thought provoking, beautiful writing is so often found here.

[language hat]

Congratulations, and keep it up!

[Mouse]

Beth, I have loved reading your blog over the years
Thank you

[Sharon]

Thank you for putting this into such eloquent perspective. I echo all of the other comments, especially those by Robb and Loriane. Every time I forget why I wanted to blog, I'll come back to this post.

[john andresen]

Beth
I have said this before but it bears repeating.Thanks for the 'supportive environment'you provided me for my writing.Thanks also for this meditative piece.The first words of Jesus in the gospel of John are 'What seek ye?'As we age perhaps we recognize better thats one tricky question.It sounds like you through your blog and your online relationships created by your blog you are finding what you are looking for.Long may it continue
john

[Pat Temiz]

My delayed response is because I am away from home and although I have my laptop with me I have had trouble finding internet access for the past few days. I hadn;t realised you'd been blogging for so long and want to say congratulations and, in tune with other commenters, I really agree with everything you say about blogging and communication in this digital age.