Or, “I has a blog. Now wut I do wif it?”
I’m experiencing something of an identity crisis with this blog. You’ve noticed that most of what I’ve been posting of late has fallen into two categories: 1) domestic stuff, and 2) innocuous filler from the internet. Unlike most of Twitter, Facebook, etc., I do not think that I am endlessly fascinating simply because I’m me, and thus I know that a recounting of mundane activities does not necessarily Great Content make. There’s only one James Lileks. (And yes, Chad, I know that you think that’s one too many.)
Of course, that’s not all that interests me in the world. Here are some other topics, and why I don’t post more about them:
Movies. Well, duh, I’ve got a whole website devoted to movie reviews. But I’m just not interested in movie news and tidbits. For one thing, I’d have to get all my news regurgitated from some other site, so unless I’ve got some scintillating commentary, you could already get it all elsewhere. For another thing (related to the first thing), I don’t make blog-browsing my highest priority, so all of the news would be stale, at least in internet terms. For a third thing, the newest movies are not always what interests me; as you can see from my review selection, I’m just as apt to review an overlooked programmer from decades ago as something that garnered attention in the last five years — more apt, in fact.
Politics and current events. Of course I have an opinion on this. Everyone does. I find myself these days thinking center-right, if there’s any accuracy left in the old straight-line-continuum metaphor for politics (indeed, if there ever was). I know that a number of you readers come in distinctly to the left of me, and that’s fine. But while political discussion is great, political debate is a pain in the ass, especially on the internet. It always has to come back to the axiomatic foundations of one’s political philosophy, and that only after a bunch of research, fact-spinning, and various rhetorical tactics. That’s a pissing contest I don’t want here.
My various creative endeavors. Way back, when my blog was first hosted at other URLs, NathanShumate.com was a personal writing portfolio site. Why did I drop it? Because I never updated it. Most of my writing efforts went into movie reviews. Even now, when I’ve started a new novel, I don’t want to either jinx it or deflate it by discussing it here, and until it’s completed, there’s no marketing effort to discuss. (And what happened to the last novel I started, the horror-western? A subject for a different post.)
Mormonism. A subject near and dear to my heart. So why don’t I discuss it more? Manifold reasons. I know that a goodly proportion of my readers, having gotten to my blog through my movie reviews, are not Mormons, aren’t versed in it, and possibly get bored by the discussion of religion. (Fair enough.) So if I wanted to discuss a general Mormon topic, I’d either have to include a crapload of background so the non-Mormons can understand what I’m talking about, or just label a given post as being for my Mormon readers. Otherwise, I’d turn it into an apologetics blog, and I really don’t want to do that; most of my religious thinking doesn’t revolve around challenge and defense, especially concerning issues that have been ping-ponged back and forth between critics and defenders for decades. And remember what I said about political debates earlier? It’s a full order of magnitude worse for religious debates.
So… What is there left? Random quotes of the day? YouTube memes? What? What should I talk about?
