Commentary

To the commenters on the first post, thanks for reading. When I said "fiction" I was thinking about writers like Kerouac, Henry Miller, Bukowski, Thomas Wolfe, and so on--people who wrote autobiography and called it fiction. A blog can be something like that. I actually like Kerouac’s letters more than his prose--less filled with attitude, more honest perhaps. It seems slightly illegal to publish someone’s private letters after they’re dead, but I’m glad they do.

My other blog is "The American Book of the Dead." It’s an attempt at sci-fi. I am not a science fiction writer. I like the medium because you can go anywhere. I think a lot of science fiction is too rigidly concerned with story. People also rigidly disregard the medium, which was reason enough to try my hand. I’ve always been a devotee of Philip K. Dick, especially his later Valis novels after he "lost his mind." I am much more interested in going far outside myself than writing about everyday life. Literary fiction often attempts to make everyday situations seem literary. I'm not so interested in doing this. In fact, it can sometimes be a lie.

Part of the reason that I started this blog is that some of the ideas caught up in "The American Book" were overtaking me. A fair number of unpopular, esoteric ideas cross my mind. I’m sure I’ll cover some here as well. I need to get back to my first love--literature. I have spent the last couple of years reading a long list of far-out non-fiction, all the while neglecting less far-out writers. I need to exercise both sides of my creative life.

I agree that a blog isn’t all about self-love. Self-expression is better. Though I do think that blogging is tied into the reality TV phenomenon. Everybody’s trying to get their 15 minutes. It’s not that cynical, however--it’s an expression of the mind, no matter how little thought most people put into what they write. There aren’t many blogs that treat the process of writing seriously. For some reason if something’s on a computer, people don’t take it seriously--readers or writers. People don’t take writing emails seriously either, even though it’s a valid form of letter writing. In the future, they will have collections of emails from great writers. If I see another LOL I’ll kill myself.