The weird thing about this blog is that it has no regular readers. Something I have come to realize recently is that if you have a blog, regularly posting is crucial if you wish to build an audience. I wish that an audience existed for my blog because I would have people to talk to about stuff literary and otherwise.
This blog has existed for almost five years and some posts such as this get a lot of views for some reason. I imagine this is because the majority of people who read George Saunders also happen to be high school english teachers who assign Saunders' stories and none of them want to read stories so they all google search "George Saunders puppy summary" so they don't have to actually think about or read the actual text.
My intention with this blog was never to rack up views. If attaining views was my goal then there would be a lot more posts on here about Minecraft, Donald Trump and the Transformers movies, etc. With that in mind, from this point forward I am going to treat this blog as a kind of diary. The key thing about this diary will be the regularity of the writing that appears on it instead of the irregularity. Eventually maybe an audience will come but that is not my goal. My goal is simply to build a regular writing habit. There will be summaries of short stories that I enjoy and want to emulate not for views but for the joy of breaking apart a story and seeing how it works. Currently I am reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and it is a total blast. It has reminded me of my love for language. I find that a philosophical interest in language is one of the traits that many writers share. I will most likely be writing about Infinite Jest soon because that is what I am currently reading and I am dying to write about it.
Anyways that's it for this post. Signing off to go read more Infinite Jest. I'm on page 103 of 1,079. Wish me luck.
This blog has existed for almost five years and some posts such as this get a lot of views for some reason. I imagine this is because the majority of people who read George Saunders also happen to be high school english teachers who assign Saunders' stories and none of them want to read stories so they all google search "George Saunders puppy summary" so they don't have to actually think about or read the actual text.
My intention with this blog was never to rack up views. If attaining views was my goal then there would be a lot more posts on here about Minecraft, Donald Trump and the Transformers movies, etc. With that in mind, from this point forward I am going to treat this blog as a kind of diary. The key thing about this diary will be the regularity of the writing that appears on it instead of the irregularity. Eventually maybe an audience will come but that is not my goal. My goal is simply to build a regular writing habit. There will be summaries of short stories that I enjoy and want to emulate not for views but for the joy of breaking apart a story and seeing how it works. Currently I am reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and it is a total blast. It has reminded me of my love for language. I find that a philosophical interest in language is one of the traits that many writers share. I will most likely be writing about Infinite Jest soon because that is what I am currently reading and I am dying to write about it.
Anyways that's it for this post. Signing off to go read more Infinite Jest. I'm on page 103 of 1,079. Wish me luck.
Hi there! As you might guess, I found your blog through the Puppy analysis post. (Heh.)
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, I am also an English teacher, who did actually read the story (it was recommended by a fellow English teacher). I would hazard a guess that the majority of people who land on the Puppy summary are not, in fact, teachers, but usually students who have been assigned the story to read and analyze. Or, they might be interested readers looking for someone else's perspective about a story that is by turns intriguing, confusing, disturbing, and sweet. Though there certainly are some slacker teachers out there (and I'm sorry if this was your experience, truly), the majority of high school English (literature) teachers are people who care deeply about language and integrity.
ANYWAY, that was a very minor aside, and not really the point of your post (though, embarrassingly enough, it is what prompted me to comment). I can definitely relate to wanting an audience for your blog simply to have "people to talk to about stuff literary and otherwise." I mean, I'm here reading this because I read a short story that shook me a few days ago, and didn't have anyone to talk to about it, so I googled for analysis/commentary/anything intelligent from anyone so there are ideas to interact with. (Have you ever read this essay-- http://everythingbutthefiction.blogspot.com/2007/05/george-saunders-puppy.html --about Puppy? It could do with a little more editing, but hey, it's a blog post, and there's a lot of insightful observations about the character development, and some helpful analysis of Saunders' craft).
Blogs in general have really taken a hit in the wake of Facebook, Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. There is just generally a smaller audience (at least that's my impression), and within that audience a fairly low percentage who consistently interact with blogs as writer/readers/commenters (again, my impression, but a bit more certain in this case). Blogs are pretty labor-intensive in comparison to a lot of other interaction and discussion formats. If you ever find that personally reflecting upon and analyzing stories isn't quite enough, and really hungering for back-and-forth discussion with others, it might be worth checking out forums, relevant Facebook groups, and of course, Reddit ( https://www.reddit.com/r/literature/ seems like the best place to start; the short story discussion focused subreddit looks pretty dead). Of course, you may have already thought of all this. :P
I wish you the best in continuing with your goal of building a regular writing habit (now, this is something where there's a lot more variance among the English teachers....definitely an area I'm working on improving); I can really see growth in your analysis between the Puppy post and your breakdown of Chekhov's "The Kiss." :) After I've read a few more Saunders stories (I think "Puppy" might be the only one I've ever read), I'll stop by again sometime to see what you thought of them!