In the comments thread of my recent essay "That Droll Man", I am criticized by a Contratimes guest for wasting my critical skills and resources on someone like Andy Rooney. I can't deny that my interlocutor is probably right.
Not a few of us who maintain blogs admit that it is not always easy to be interesting, let alone interested, in all things current, worldly, newsworthy. It is hard to be fresh and creative; it is hard to find a new meter or rhyming scheme, or to walk at a different cadence. The heart taps out its life in certain known and comforting rhythms; writers try to emulate the life-giving thrust of the heart but often find themselves speaking in arrhythmias and arrests.
What can I say if, instead of writing about pearls, I sometimes pick on swine? Have I wasted my time, and yours?
There are so many able writers in the blogosphere that I am nearly always hesitant to express an opinion for fear of being utterly superfluous. In political commentary, the likes of James Taranto render my comments rather insipid: I feel like there is more substance in prison-house gruel than in much of what I offer. In philosophic commentary, I take a backseat -- on a train -- to countless writers on the web. In religious discussions, I am a janitor working the pews after the College of Cardinals breaks for vespers.
So when I can find anything -- even something as small and insignificant as an Andy Rooney op-ed about baseball -- I have to confess that I've found it while dredging the murky depths in the swamp which is my current state of mind. I am a lot like that man sitting on a bench on some dirty subway platform playing old tunes on a borrowed harmonica. The only differences are that I have not put out a hat and I don't really know that many tunes. I strain to improve on the few tunes I do know; and I listen -- perhaps in vain -- for any new melodies I might bring to the waiting and hurrying travelers who pass my way with nary a nod.
©Bill Gnade 2007/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.
2 comments:
Ah and bah. Have you seen the crap so-called artists and political experts get paid to pimp out? Everyone has low and slow days. I'm no fan of people who point out other people's moments of weaknesses. Shit happens.
Bill, that's the beauty of this medium. You can write about whatever you want. Who cares if only a few of us enjoy it and miss when you're not posting. Sometimes, we do this for ourselves, not for 25,000 hits per day.
Cheers.
P.S. I ordered your most recent recommendation from Amazon yesterday. I decided not to wait for Christmas.
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