I have a few thoughts about blogging. (I promise I’ll be brief.)
This article, from Prospect Magazine, is a brief interview with Leon Wieseltier.
Nothing about any of that short article may mean a tinker’s dam to you, and truth be told, I share a pinch of your disinterest. (One need only spend a moment viewing the editorial cartoons posted on the magazine’s main page to . . . well . . . hell, we’ve got time. Go ahead, visit here, scroll to the bottom and check out the humor.)
I’ll wait.
Hum-te-tum-te-tum. (Hey, what are those &^$% dogs doing with my nice socks?)
Oh, you’re back.
Okay, see what I mean? The stabs at humor are drier than the Sahara. (Reference this for a Family Guy explanation.) That desiccated jocularity tells us this is a serious magazine, with serious subjects for serious people. Ergo, our tinker’s dam.
Quick Aside:
You may prefer the alternate sense of the phrase, a tinker’s dam, which is a tinker’s damn, and that’s just fine, since either dam(n) makes the point of insignificant indifference.
Where was I?
Yes . . . the interview.
I know almost nothing of or about Mr. Wieseltier beyond that which is mentioned in the article. Apparently he’s been hanging about the New Republic for thirty years, and — by all appearances — he’s quite smart. I say, “Good show!” and all that.
However . . .
He makes a particular comment during the interview that causes me to tilt my head a smidge and flutter my eyes. (You should try it some time; it’s cathartic.)
The thing about blogging is that it is either someone’s first thoughts . . . or as time goes by they simply repeat themselves. Moreover there isn’t a lot you can say about anything consequential in 300 words.
Hmm.
The older I get, the more convinced I become that there are some things about which firm assertions may be made.
And then there’s everything else.
For example, one may firmly assert that fire burns, water is wet, there are g’zillions of stars in the universe and George W. Bush was the worst president in American history. See, these things are readily apparent, repeatedly demonstrable and assuredly predictable. (That last item was, to my way of thinking, significantly more predictable than all the others. But I digress.)
To make a bold, brash and broad statement about ALL blogs, (as Mr. Wieseltier made), is simply a bucket of tepid pish-tosh! And that snide remark about repetition simply runs off the rails. C’mon Leon, you’ve been writing New Republic’s back page for thirty years. Do you really want us to believe that you’ve never, ever repeated yourself in three decades?
Really?
It all sounds a bit snooty to me, and if you don’t mind my saying, when one tempts snoot, one must take care to avoid being hoisted upon, with or by one’s own petard. (I’m just saying.)
At any rate, Mr. Wieseltier, your comment about how you can’t say anything consequential in 300 words or less? Okay, I’ll give you that one. Truly and for reals, I can’t for the life of me think of anything of meaning that was ever written in less than 300 words.
Nope.
Not a single thi—
Hmm, again.
Well . . . maybe except for that one thing.
Four score and seven years ago . . .
