Comments on: C+, Your Site Lacks Unity.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I have long admired your system of categories (individual poets). It makes it easy to relate and compare reactions to things. My site is much more scatter-brained, but then it covers a broad swath of readings. I think the real power of this stuff is being able to look back, long after you’ve written, at reactions to things in a non-systematic way.

BTW, I still occasionally look at your Emerson stuff. It turns out that Emerson’s philosophy has become fairly central to the research I’m doing on the early nineteenth century.

By: qB

qB — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I came galumphing over for the poetry, and stayed for you. And the journey of discovery you allow us to accompany you on. Whichever path you choose, choose it for you.

By: wr

wr — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Loren, no, no, you can’t give yourself a C+. What is that? The positive side of average? If it’s true that doctors make the worst patients, then surely teachers shouldn’t be permitted to grade themselves.
My own search for personal enlightenment has also led me through the winding streets of poetry and literature, but unlike you, I don’t contribute any personal commentary, perhaps because I lack your background in teaching.
Personally, I think the relationship we have with blogging tends to be very similar to actual relationships. There are reasons to stay and reasons to go. There is a necessary commitment that must exist in order for the relationship to endure through good times and bad times. There is passion, sometimes, and there is boredom. I’m speaking metaphorically, of course, but isn’t it true that anything we do has the potential of becoming a burden?
I know you’ve been doing this a long time, and I’m guessing you’ve gone through this phase before. Why am I doing this? Who would care if I quit? Once past the first lustful exhilaration of it all, everyone must stop and ask themselves the same questions.
If I were the teacher, I would certainly grade you higher than a C+. Seriously, if you were the student, wouldn’t you expect more? Wouldn’t you suspect the teacher of having some underlying prejudices against you?
I know, someday, you’ll go. Someday I’ll go. How many of us will keep this up for ten years? For twenty? Who will be the famous old-timer still blogging thirty or forty years from now? But I will miss you when you go. And I’ll remember you, and the things you taught me here. I am sure of it.

By: loren

loren — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Okay, this isn’t an announcement that I’m about to stop blogging.

When I’m ready to do that, I’ll just pull the plug, shut the whole damn thing down and go hiking in the mountains, kayaking on the Sound, or cross country skiing in the Olympics. I won’t announce it. It’ll just be gone.

This is a way of admitting that I’m frustrated with what I’m doing and need to find some new ways of doing it.

The third part of this series should be posted tomorrow before I leave on my California trip.