[ Wednesday, July 06, 2005 ]
Hello, I'm back...
What got up Gary Trudeau's ass? Sunday's Doonesbury strip asks "isn't blogging basically for angry, semi-employed losers who are too un-talented or too lazy to get real jobs in journalism?"
Right, and drawing cartoons is for artists who are too un-talented or too lazy to produce legitimate commercial art, eh Gary?
No, I'll tell you what blogging is about. It's about real writing, not the drivel that some boot licking free lancer or staff reporter pens to please his editor. It's about putting your story out where no one from the legal department, or marketing, can kill it. It's about pouring your opinion into a big rocks glass, and labeling it "sarcasm" with no apologies. I don't have to spin my story, if you come here you know you're going to get some left wing middle aged white guy ranting about the failed political machine.
It's true that the best measure of your work's worth is what someone is willing to pay you for it. It's sad, but it's true. In this decade writing is becoming a peer to peer process. The vast majority of "citizens" can't or won't read the printed page any more. Getting paid a legitimate fee for your work is almost unheard of. In some genres, poetry for example, even acceptance and publication will seldom result in more than a few author's copies as payment. So what?
If I wrote something that was sought after by the vast majority of the public, I would then deem my work a failure. By my own definition, if it's popular, it's not real. And of course, if it's true, it's not going to be popular.
To put it another way, blogging is the real American's editorial page.
Kiss my ass on the way out if you don't like it.
David Blaine [5:30 PM]