bloggedy blog: the personal weblog of a music lover and aging punk wannabe

:: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 ::

A fine blog
I'm finding I have many of thoughts in common with Karen Neudorf, editor of Beyond magazine. That's not to say I agree with or hold in common everything she posts on her weblog. It's that I find myself admiring just about all of her posts, even her posts about life in Canada and the beauty of a bitterly cold morning (brrr), and that often I find myself reading a Karen Neudorf post and thinking, "Gee, that's exactly what I was thinkin' just the other day, only I didn't dare blog about it because it would have come out fuzzy or flippant or shallow or inarticulate, or all of those things." But Karen's blog entries are none of those things. They're reflective and thoughtful. Here are a couple of examples:

Karen on why magazines are often better than books: Have you ever been in the middle of a book chapter and noticed that the author is up to his eyeballs in filler? "And here's the twenty-fourth example to back up my point." A poor, innocent sentence becomes a bloated paragraph which becomes an overweight chapter and you are stuck on the back of this big beast on a lumbering ride to nowhere.

That is exactly what I've been feeling as I've been attempting to slog through The Younger Evangelicals. Apologies to Len, who wrote a very thorough and positive review of Webber's book, and to any others out there who find the book worthwhile reading. But I just can't get into it. I find a lot of padding and repetition in it. Magazine articles, however, are a different creature. Back to Karen:

Magazines give us the ability to see into the corners and under the seat cushions - places we would have only visited on occasion and then we are surprised at the treasures held within. They bring us stories we may not have paid attention to in book form. In some ways, a good article, a well done essay or profile can at times contain better writing than a book. The very nature of a magazine's space and time constraints can provide the reader with some wonderfully minimalist writing.

Here, here.

Karen on the point of blogging: I think I've been reading too many blogs lately. I was going to write an entry yesterday but just stared at the screen. I've been thinking about the nature of a commenting society and wondering how does one write small entries without being "quippy"? I really enjoy the nature of a blog - the idea of glimpsing into someone's life and being connected to something that they thought was important or silly or inspiring.

But I looked into some of the more popular blogs and it just seemed kind of weird to me. Some of the blogs that get 50,000 hits a day post almost every 10 minutes and say things like "Oh I really hate this (link to article) and I can't agree with that either (link to article). They obviously don't know what they're talking about here (link to article)." And I wonder how are blogs changing the nature of the media by doing this? This isn't insightful critique. It's point and click thinking, quips instead of reflection or even analysis. Some blogs bring things to my attention that I wouldn't have found on my own. I enjoy Darren's Long Pauses because he takes some time to really think things out. But these sites are few and far between. And I think that's because it does take time and on the web, it's all about the next link.

Yes, yes, Karen. It seems we've all started blogs to become pundits or metabloggers -- to find and post the latest morsel of news, or quirky site or funny flash animation. We scour blogdex to see what everyone's blogging about, then post about the latest blognews so that we, too, may appear with it, current, relevant. I'm not surprised that Jordon Cooper is shutting down his site for awhile to re-evaluate the merits of punditry. It's a good idea. Thanks, Karen, for sharing these thoughts in words.

:: Andrew 16:48 + ::
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