6.1.16

Hello, still here. I know the tactic is to not post on a regular schedule, the idea of posting gets to be too large, the gap widens, and then when you return it's with great apologies. I've heard of this called "a-blog-ogising". Maybe because most of the blogs I read are written by women who do other things for a living I encounter this so much, but it feels like it shows up regularly.

 I assume that people who post a lot feel guilt for not posting regularly because they feel like their readers enjoy their posts, possibly because they enjoy the posts of others. I know I enjoy reading other's work. I have been thinking about the writing in the context of another type of craft.

In the sewing community, "Me-Made May" is a pretty big deal, where sewists are encouraged to wear the stuff they make out on a regular basis and maybe document it, maybe just meditate on what about the clothing works and what doesn't. Many creators make great things, and then tuck them away, and the event is an attempt to circumvent that. (Boy, does that sound familiar). I thought it would be great to have a similar thing for other types of people who create, but there's a stumbling block there. (I almost typed blog, hello Freud!) Wearing handmade clothes for a month gets folks' attention, because clothing--as a part of fashion in general--is considered intrinsically socially valuable. Writing is not. I am not saying writing is not important, because we know that's wrong, but culturally it is way down he ladder of value.

Do you read the news online? How often do you wish the organization, often a real news outfit, would just please employ the services of a copy editor? This happens to me constantly. When they can't catch their spelling and grammar errors, should we trust print media as a reliable source? (Okay, that is a giant argument, but the point is that if writing were important, the news outfit would care enough to proofread and edit their stories). I read an article the other day that said ever since Facebook launched their streaming video service, other types of content went way down in visibility. (Read: photos and text) Whether this is due to users viewing the content less or the site promoting the video disproportionately, it shows written content is at the very bottom rung.

So, we can go out and create poetry terrorism, hold open mics, graffiti verse on public spaces, but I doubt it would do much. Does having the art be underground do something for it, or is there another benefit to being an extreme subculture? I apologize for being somewhat fatalistic about all of this. Thinking about it has been revelatory, but still hasn't gotten me writing.