Cousins invading my blogosphere

While I haven't been writing or reading many blogs, I've had a number of surprising blog experiences and connections of late. First, Howard Dully (discussed below), then Norene from San Francisco commented on my death entry--she has a fascinating blog with a very specific purpose, as she says, "what if every single person devoted 5% of our time and energy to being a better person and creating a better world." She takes on the quotidian tasks of how she simplified her breakfast routine. Then my cousin's husband, one I rarely see and haven't spoken to much over the past few years, posted a comment about my discussion of the Harper's article "Jesus without the miracles."

None of this is that amazing but it got me thinking about blogs, technology, and public writing. First, I'm struck, as mentioned in another post, about the truly public nature of a blog. This reminds me of John Trimbur's (a composition scholar) focus on the circulation of writing. Clearly circulation matters, but often the traditional circulation of our writing is predictable, foreseeable, and limited. Blogs introduce a number of variables. For one blogs seem (and I know this might get overstated at times) to level the playing field a bit as with Dully's comment on my blog--the creator of a radio essay takes notice, albeit a small one, of a nobody like me writing about listening to his essay. Two blogs can surprise: I would have never guessed in a million years that my cousin's husband would not only find and post a comment on my blog but would have actually read the same article I was discussing. We would have never discussed this article and now we will probably talk more at the next family gathering. Still, I probably wouldn't have gotten too excited about all this, if a couple of days later (I believe they worked independently :) another cousin, Shane, from the same family posted a comment to a post I wrote back in August called "Anarchists in Cache Valley?"

And this is where it gets interesting. In Shane's words, "I was doing a blog search for anarchists in Denver the other day and imagine my surprise to find this--and then to find out that I was the Cache Valley anarchist!" When I read the reply, I immediately worried about what I had said about my cousin: had I been rude or dismissive; had I exaggerated? I truly felt caught with my pants down. I'd just never, however naively, thought about my cousin reading my blog. Maybe, then, this is much ado about nothing: this strange blog communication is merely the result of my inabilities to appropriately understand the rhetorical situation of my blog. But the circulation of a blog is unique. On one level, most of my blog readers are colleagues, it's just like any old piece of writing I might share with co-workers or friends. Except I would never have shared this kind of writing with colleagues, friends, or family. There was not technology or genre to support this kind of activity. Further, the reader has more ability to control the circulation of the text. Of course we control circulation as we buy a magazine, but again where else does the reader have control over access to this kind of personal, ranting, observational type writing? Where else can readers easily seek out some average Fred and Freda talking about their lives and thoughts?

I'm not satisfied with my ability to get at the core of this and I'm confident someone else has articulated it much better. But as I'm engaged with this kind of writing, I still hit the "publish post" button, warts and all. Having been found out, as it were, I wonder if I will start to reign in my writing a bit. I wonder how I'd feel if an old girlfriend or particular family members stumbled onto my blog. And I've wondered about bloggers with older kids (Mega?)--will I want my children reading my blog? Not really. I guess I could then turn to limiting access but then that feels so unbloglike. BTW my cousin's anarchist blog is engagingly brave and honest though the blue font is tough to read and there are no dates on the posts (maybe the latter is intended--he is an anarchist)--wonder if he ever imagined I'd be reading and critiquing his blog.