Is blogging an art form? Why did you create your blog…really?
This shall be quick & dirty… the head is swimming with too much content, too little process. Blogging, in part, is to help with this processing/ a platform for a bit of creative expression. Currently, a rabbit hole tripped me and swallowed the body whole offering only a diet of blog reading re:creativity/lit theory and academy. The tank has gone sodden/leaden in the undertow.
Even in blogland, there are levels to being a blogger. I’ve had several over the years. Each, in the end, gets abandoned after reading too much of the establishment which has me contemplating, what is the importance of these words I write?
Is writing poetry an expression just of the individual psyche? Is a writer creating art if it is only to be understood by a certain few? Why is experimental writing lauded in some circles as the Only art left to be considered? If you are not writing something of publishable relevancy, should you even bother? Can you keep your backbone intact no matter the attack?
THAT last question is perhaps the best one of all, if you wish to survive the raging waves, not be a wash up in tomorrow’s tide.
Personally, I must write for the freedom to express what I oft cannot say…to create a platform/ a soundboard/ or even a environment that may not otherwise exist. It is within these abstractions, I gain powerful insight that may just transform/transport the mundane world.
There is much more to say, but time is ticking. There are not enough minute hands for proper articulation of the articles I shall list, but here they are anyway. It is a hodgepodge of insight (mainly regarding the current poetry climate), perhaps there will be something of relevance to what your are currently pondering.
I will leave with one thought that came to me after making this list:
Are you wishing to change the course of the craft, or just ride the tide?
~
on Poetry/poetics/avant-garde/
~ Avant-Garde & the academe (with several links re:Poetry Wide Open << quite extensive)
~ more poetic discourse on Avant-Garde article via S. Abramson (re:above link, S.A. is academic)
~ on poetic failure (if anything, watch McSweeney read King Prion via Kelly Writers House (video embedded in blog)…a fabulous piece!)
on a much lighter note, but led me to now follow the Gaga Project & Kate Durbin, which is fascinating, Uplifting from a feminist/artistic POV, read the VIDA Q&A with the two Kates re: ART & expression...good stuff
be cautious only after you’ve had your last breath
Soma Mukherjee
/ 2012/07/12I like to write..a lot. but more than that i love reading. after my Daughter was diagnosed with autism i unlearned what ever i have learned till then and changed my path…and there in started the whole process of silly writings..which she would enjoy,laugh at…as you know most kids with autism lack imagination and have a problem with comprehension..and i have been working with autistic kids for so long that now most of my writings reflect the very nature of my work…
anyone who has ever read my work knows my writing lacks the structure that a fine writng requires and but i am very happy doing what i do…i have no intention of publishing any of my work not that they are of that level..but i am enjoying weaving silly posts a lot
one thing about blogging is it is kind if a big brother of facebook.
you comment on my posts i comment on yours, very few people actually read and comment on others even if that person never ever visits other blogs…
angela
/ 2012/07/12Soma, my dear, your blog posts ARE a testament to your creativity and abilities as a writer. You are so fun to read because you go outside the box with posts that are real and relavent. I need not tell you any of this…your blog readers tell you at ever posts! I love that you write for your daughter in such a way for we ALL benefit from your words. ~ hugs~ angela
boomiebol
/ 2012/07/12“Personally, I must write for the freedom to express what I oft cannot say” I can relate to this…writing affords me a freedom that i won’t otherwise use in my daily world…words, thoughts, ideas pop into my head or heart and I can’t help myself….i want to write them. I first realized this ability at 13 or so and then stopped for almost 16 years or so…but since 2010 i have been writing again, and my heart feels full in that regard…i am not the best writer and i doubt that i know what i am doing half the time but this what my heart wants…it makes my heart soar…my heart is happy doing this, and for now…that is good enough for me
angela
/ 2012/07/12Bravo, boomie, for taking up the pen again. I, too, wrote stories as a child and young adult only to not write again (creatively) until mid-twenties. It was a blue period for me. I turned to poetry. I’d like to believe that we instinctively turn back to our given gifts during our darkest hour for they are our wings. Keep writing, it IS good and you’ve got a following that reinforces any doubt. ~ a
Carl D'Agostino
/ 2012/07/12experimental writing – I have seen a lot of very creative stuff in art with different media and very original. The same with words. Appreciate that too. However, what ever they publish in the New Yorker. well it is beyond me why it is apprehended as literature at all. If that stuff is experimental I think the only thing proved is junk.
angela
/ 2012/07/12Carl, you’d probably dislike a lot of what I read online & what I purchase for my personal library. Believe it or not, in most the circles that I ‘eavesread’ the New Yorker is too institutional. It is very tame and old school. I get where you are coming from…it is a huge complaint regarding poetry today, i.e. the lack of accessibility. For me, as long as I’m writing what is streaming through me (not a forced current) I will posts be it experimental or common. Besides, I’m just a hobby blogger not a writer ~ a
Andra Watkins
/ 2012/07/12Angela, I think I am weird. I don’t ever even think about why I write or what my process is or consider my point. It seems I write because I must, whether two people or two thousand connect with it. I’m always interested to see what causes different reactions in people, but I don’t write to get those reactions. I just write what I must write.
Maybe that’s why I’m not further along in this process.
angela
/ 2012/07/12You are not weird, Andra, and you obviously connect with many readers (I see your following & am a reader/commenter). I think you touch upon something that I feel is imperative in my own writing…not to write to get a reaction. At the end of the day, I’ll read blogs/fb/links all over the board that may influence my thoughts, but the minute I try to write to ‘fit’ one of those ideologie – game over. Biggest challenge…not to forget to test my limits. If no one gets it or likes it, no matter, as long as is ‘true’. ~ a
C.B. Wentworth
/ 2012/07/12Even though I’m working to get something published, writing will always be a creative expression for me. It’s something I do because it is part of me. If I get something in print, great. If not, that’s great, too.
angela
/ 2012/07/12I must agree about the creative expression, CB. Blogland is an added bonus for we can share our musings with others…for me, it takes only one person’s response to feel rewarded, that is all I need. ~
kateshrewsday
/ 2012/07/13Good questions, Angela….I used to be a journalist and communicating is in the blood. This is a way to do that. My hearts desire is not to write a book, but to once again write columns, but I have a lot to learn about the kind of stuff people like to read in this fast-moving age. The blog is a journey to finding out, I suppose, what sells- or in this case, what goes viral.
Carl D'Agostino
/ 2012/07/18I re-read today. I really like your ending sentence. I think you are much more than a hobby blogger . You are a writer. I can’t remember if I have asked you to guest blog. I would need pic or gravatar, short bio and a poem or two of your choice sent as jpegs. Wednesdays now is guest artist or poet only. Check out last two months Wed posts to see what I mean.