Blogging and Meta-Blogging

The concept of “meta” is one of the most fascinating—and at times annoying—concepts that we are introduced to as we get older.  The idea that we can think about thought, discuss discussion, and blog about blogging is both eminently useful and unfortunately overused.  While it is one of the hallmarks of rational thought that we can contemplate what is going on in our own minds, it is also a crutch which is too easily used to abstract—and extract—ourselves from our problems.

That said, I will allow myself to indulge in a post about posting, for the purposes of, well, self-indulgence.  And also because there are a few good ideas to be had from the endeavor.

Having not posted a substantial piece of writing in quite a while, I realized I was starting to yearn for the chance to choose a topic, order my thoughts about it, craft my words, and polish the piece to perfection.*  While I am not a particularly literary person (few would call my writing the height of literary accomplishment, and those who do are probably just trying to flatter me), I am informed that I have a knack for clarity.  One of the best compliments I ever received came from a friend who told me, “James, you have a way of just taking words out of the air and putting them together and saying ‘there you go.’”

Without drifting into self-flattery as well as self-indulgence (it is my professional opinion that blog posts should be limited to only one subject which includes the prefix “self-”), I think I can safely note that there is something very satisfying about a good piece of writing.  First, it has the helpful characteristic, like all other human tasks, that when it is done well it makes us feel good.  We can look back on it and say, “Hey, I did that!”  Or, in the words of our own Creator, “It is good.”

Second, a good piece of writing has a sense of order to it.  As humans seem constantly intent on fighting the entropy of the world around us, order is soothing to our minds.  If you took all the words in a good  blog post, jumbled them up in a bag, and dumped them out again, you would have… a mess.  But when that mess is arranged into a well-ordered post you have something enjoyable to read.  Perhaps this is why we all  like magnetic poetry so much.

In addition to the satisfaction derived from the actual piece of writing itself, the long-term process of learning to write is enjoyable in and of itself.  (I actually believe this, even though I could be accused of simply pandering to the “it’s the journey that matters” people with that comment)  Nothing illustrates this to me quite like em dashes.

There is something wondrous about a well-placed em dash.  (Just like the magic of a correctly used semicolon!)  Consider the following paragraph from a paper I wrote:

The largest difficulty facing modern democratic government is no longer external aggressors or internal tyrants. Instead, the most pressing problem modern government must  confront and conquer today is itself. At the core of this problem lies the issue of bureaucracy. While bureaucracy is the brunt of many jokes, Albert Einstein is said to have quipped that “bureaucracy is the death of all sound work,” the fact remains that a well functioning bureaucracy is necessary for the existence of the state.

Now take the same paragraph, but use the em dash carefully:

The largest difficulty facing modern democratic government is no longer external aggressors or internal tyrants. Instead, the most pressing problem modern government must  confront and conquer today is itself. At the core of this problem lies the issue of bureaucracy. While bureaucracy is the brunt of many jokes—Albert Einstein is said to have quipped that “bureaucracy is the death of all sound work”—the fact remains that a well functioning bureaucracy is necessary for the existence of the state.

It may seem like a subtle change, but the addition of the em dashes makes a world of difference in how the sentence reads.  When the clause is set off by commas, it remains part of the sentence.  But when the mighty em dash is employed, our mind pulls out of the sentence momentarily to ponder the brilliance of Einstein.  While we remain on the same topic, the em dash allows us to interject an only semi-related thought without destroying the flow of the writing.

It took me many years, and much reading, to appreciate the usefulness of the em dash.  I admit to being somewhat biased against it in the past.  (I won’t try to justify this; we must learn to put childish things behind us.  Can I justify why I didn’t like cheese when I was young?  No.  Neither can I justify my dislike of em dashes, other than to say that I was misguided.)  Now, however, it is an integral tool in my writing arsenal.

This is what I mean by the process of learning to write: developing new tools. Blogging facilitates this process.  While my older posts may not be the most marvelous things in the world, I can look back over them and trace the evolution of my thought, style, and maturity in their words.

There are many more ideas in the realm of meta-writing which I didn’t touch on here: the joys of editing, the logical learning of a good outline, and others.  Even the quiet satisfaction of spell-check could be the subject for a post.  But let us conclude there, before we venture too far into the realm of the pataphysical in our blogging, and our blogging about our blogging, and—horror of horrors!—our blogging about our blogging about our blogging.  If we do, we may never come out again.  Let “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” be a warning to us all:

Joan was quizzical; Studied pataphysical
Science in the home.
Late nights all alone with a test tube.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine,
Calls her on the phone.
“Can I take you out to the pictures,
Joa, oa, oa, oan?”

But as she’s getting ready to go,
A knock comes on the door.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer
Came down upon her head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell’s silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.

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* Note that this does not mean I will actually do so anytime soon. Unfortunately there are numerous other factors, beyond simply my existential yearnings, which influence my ability to write long blog posts.