April 27, 2005

And then what?

That last post got an Instapundit link for the proposition "HAVING A BLOG means that no research idea is ever wasted!" I could make that a whole series, as I must have hundreds of little snippets of things that never got off the ground. Someday, someone's going to look back at this blogging business and say it was all so wrong. People used to develop elaborate ideas, think about them for years, hone them into crystalline prose for the ages, and then, somewhere around the turn of the millennium, they switched to tossing up fresh-thought ideas and abandoned fragments and....

And what? Chaos ensued? We lost our gravitas? Nobody took any responsibility for anything anymore? It was all just fun and games from then on?

Meanwhile, all new snippets from me always get off the ground, and I'm really not taking any responsbility, am I?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

It is fun, isn't it? I write screenplays (long) and edit academic papers (long) for a living, so blogging is like a dollop of sherbert between the fish and meat courses. :)

Allison said...

I love that blogs showcase half-formed ideas. So much of what we read has been so thoroughly processed (researched, fact-checked, spell-checked, second-guessed, edited, etc.) that it's refreshing to sometimes see thoughts in progress. It's like seeing Miss America when she wakes up in the morning.

Old Patriot said...

I had an English Lit teacher back an eon or two ago that said that it's not the longwinded rants that make an impact upon us, but the casual idea tossed off as nothing. I've found that true far more frequently than I'd have thought. That leads to the conclusion that NOTHING is unimportant or "trivial" if it makes the right impact upon the person that hears (or reads) it.

BarbaraFromCalifornia said...

Yes, sometimes it is worth paying attention, and even sweating the small stuff.

I came across your blog, by accident (the best way to blog, it seems) and notice we have quite a bit in common!

Ann Althouse said...

Patca, Allison, Old Patriot, Barbara: thanks for encouraging me. When somebody someday looks back and says this was all so wrong, they'll be able to see I was encouraged!