Rewritten Reality » Uncategorized http://rewrittenreality.com Literature, language, and life rewritten. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:29:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Real writing, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the blog… http://rewrittenreality.com/2007/12/06/real-writing-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-started-a-blog/ http://rewrittenreality.com/2007/12/06/real-writing-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-started-a-blog/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:14:21 +0000 A Writer http://rewrittenreality.com/2007/12/06/real-writing-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-started-a-blog/ I need to make a confession: I dislike blogs. Really. I find many of them (not all) boring, self-indulgent, and ultimately pointless…as if we've all taken our quiet lives of desperation and decided to tell everyone about them via websites instead of phone calls. If I were a post-modernist I would probably end this opening entry here with you still reeling from the ridiculous contradiction I'm engaged in…but I'm not, so I can't.  And as it happens, it's not really blogs I have a problem with, but the ways some people use them–either as a recreation of the day ("Woke up.  Showered.  Had breakfast.  Walked the dog.") or a super vague diary ("Maybe hatred doesn't mean much, but still, the beach is with me.  Omelettes, anyone?").  The first doesn't matter to anyone but the person involved (Really.  I know your friends say they read it, but they don't.  Not even your girlfriend.  Yes, she lied to you about it.), and the second might matter a lot to everyone but we'll never know since no one has any idea what the hell the person is blathering about (like Finnegan's Wake without the upside).  

And yet, there are good blogs out there, ones which have a larger purpose of communication and community. I'd love to come up with some super-insightful criticism of those things, but, well, I can't.  Maybe the beach is with me.  Anyway, the common element of these blogs seems to be that they're focused on something–they emphasize music, or art, or sports, or quilting (don't give me that look, quilting is hella culturally intense, dog), or something.  Now I'm a professor, musician, and writer, not necessarily in that order, but all those things seem to tend towards the intellectual/emotional side of the ledger…so I decided a blog dealing with those things might be in order.  Hence Rewritten Reality.  Here you'll find frank (I hope) commentary on my work in academia, trying to get published in the rough and tumble world of fiction, and playing in a rock band…and anything loosely related to those areas.  Promises:

1.  I'll try to avoid posting things that only affect me.  No updates about fulfilling various bodily functions or posts with suggestive but vague, innuendo-ridden language about deep dark secrets.  If I do post those things, feel free to call me on them, or at least respond in kind ("mushroom omelettes for all!")  I'll certainly post many things which I encounter or bring up issues related to what's going on with me (that's part of the point of this site!), but always in hopes of getting a discussion started.  And speaking of discussion…

2.  …I really do invite, encourage, and desire discussion…of the constructive kind.  Feel free to agree, disagree, applaud or deride, but keep it civil.  Be righteous all you want, but try to direct your anger at the right sources…and not me or fellow commenters.  Violators will be dealt with harshly, probably involving something with a beach and an omelette.

Over the next few weeks I will try to get an E-mail address set up so you can contact me privately if you wish, but I really would like this page to be a public place where you can express ideas freely.  Thanks for stopping by, all.

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