The blog originated in January as a catch basin for mental detritus, for the kind of stuff not good enough for print, but too good to waste on casual conversation or, worse, mere thinking. But this spring I began allowing "comments," and the blog suddenly mutated. America, it turns out, is full of smart, clever, creative people who happen to have no interest in working and whose employers have unwisely given them Internet access. Thus every day, on my blog, these strangers show up, just to shoot the breeze, flirt, kvetch, veer off topic and, most of all, pay zero attention to what I have written.
Let's cut to the chase: The blog ignores me.
I am constantly having to post something new just to make the blog interested in me again. My contribution to the blog is what I call the "Kit." The commenters' part is called the "Kaboodle." Some of the everyday Kaboodlers make references to "our blog," as though they're co-proprietors. It's obvious at this point that the Kaboodle is trying to take over the blog. And it won't stop with me: I can picture the Kaboodle rambling across the countryside, panting heavily, stomping through people's gardens, tinkling on little kids' tricycles, etc.
The general trend in blogs seems to be the diminution of the blogger and the elevation of the commentariat.
Okay, commentariat, it's your turn. But before I go — and I've got a long, long drive ahead of me right now — let me say that I don't intend to decline and I don't agree that I'm blogging what's "not good enough for print." I love the form of writing that blogging unleashes and feel that many of the things I can say this way are better than what I could find a place for in other sorts of writing. Okay. Your turn.
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