Why we write

My friend Jen has this horror blog and we were actually talking on the phone last night, really talking like with our voices and stuff- not just commenting on each others' blogs. It was amazing.

Apparently, her blog has a huge following, even though she gets very few comments. Kudos to Jen! She's always been a living encyclopedia of film, and yet still somehow had a personality. (If her personality was a film, it would be a darkly ironic comedy, I think. Probably it would be in Italian, too. Not that she speaks Italian or is Italian, but it would be in Italian, nevertheless. With subtitles and long silences.) She says that, even though she has like a billion or so readers, she just writes for herself.

That's why I write this one, too. I just write for myself. It makes me happy to let my freak flag fly high.

So, fellow bloggers, why do you blog?

And if your personality were a film, what genre would you be found under?

(I guess I should answer the second question for myself. I would be a low budget musical with a few decorative transvestites- transvestites in non-central roles, I mean. And there would be tubas.)

13 comments:

  1. One of y Icelandic blog-pals once said: "It is an affliction"

    ... and I'm not looking for a cure...

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  2. This morning I was thinking about why you write your blog. Does that make me psychic?

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  3. Blogging is just a means of telling. We love to do telling and reflecting. Humans are such meaning making animals. Humans suck in many different ways, but reflective practice is one of our best features.
    Go humanity!

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  4. "and there would be tubas"
    I LOVE this.
    there would be Spanish - guitar - and embroidery and lace - and
    pink
    and flowers
    the scene from the Nutcracker when all the little gingerbreads tumble out from under an enormous hoop skirt ;-)

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  5. I write to remember. To convince myself that something really happened. It's a way of sorting through what I experienced. It's like retelling a dream-you do your own interpretation by the things you mention and the things you leave out. And it beats watching bad tv. (sometimes)

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  6. Dad, you must be psychic. But, wait- wouldn't you know you were psychic, if you were really psychic?

    I love all these comments. They're all so thought provoking. I've realized, reading them, that I also write about the past a lot because it helps me remember things more clearly. Once I write about something that happened a long time ago, I start remembering more details. Like, with the Norwegian Wood song, I remembered after I wrote it that we kept sort of harassing that tour guide by singing throughout the entire tour. We thought their hall of chairs (parliament!) was really funny, since in the song there was no chair. We were so rude! I had completely forgotten about all that, but the little gray cells kept working after I wrote the blog entry, and now I remember. Isn't it interesting how our brains work?

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  7. My blog is my place to be a berserker. And my place to find other berserkers. And when I occasionally write a review its my chance to think hard and to practice my writing skills--I always need more practice at both of these things.

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  8. I blog for pretty much the same reason you do, as yet another way to fly the ol' freak flag.
    I'm sure my movie would be something like The Naked Lunch with less drugs and more typewriter roaches.

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  9. I like the art of writing, and the art of conversation - and blogging is a mix of the two.

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  10. Lady Fi, well put! I hadn't thought of it that way, but you are right.

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  11. can my italian film be a zombie film?

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  12. Christina, I want to see your movie.

    Lady Fi, your blog is like having a conversation, sort of. It's very casual and beautiful. And I can't believe you've lived this long! It must be from blogging.

    Jen, your movie could be a zombie movie, but it would be sort of a secret of the film- like "The Crying Game" of zombies. Nobody would tell anyone it was a zombie movie, they'd just say, "You have to see this movie! It has a surprise. I can't tell you what it is, but you have to see this movie!" Zombies at Tiffany's.

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  13. I like it!!! At work we have this thing called a "mantrap" It is how you leave the store at night. You go into this little hallway, close the heavy steel door, set the alarm, and then open the opposite steel door. My first thought was: good for a Zombie apocalypse. In Italian of course.

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