Why Blog?
I pinched the imaginative title for this post from Tim Bulkeley, who asks the same question. It struck me as a good question to ask as a newbie. (After various false starts I seem to have got the bug, and this blog is now entering it’s third month – a long way to go yet) I don’t disagree with his rewards of blogging:
social - in reading and writing blogs one “meets” so many interesting people …
intellectual - one also meets, and I hope shares, such interesting ideas
surprising - when by email, phone or face to face on meets someone who actually reads what one writes (now that’s seldom happened to me as a result of print publication!)
But there’s more to it for me than that. Kevin Wilson, noting a difficult personal time, said of his blog:
Right now this blog is about my only connection to biblical scholarship, so I plan to keep blogging, especially because I enjoy it too much to stop.
As someone who is engaged in (very) part-time doctoral study fitted round a more than full-time job, (and I’ve had to suspend my registration for a year or two) I share Kevin’s sentiment in large part. For those of us not on a campus or in a college of some kind, it provides a kind of online common room. Unlike newsgroups or whatever, you can not only choose which conversations to join in, but to a large degree who you talk with. You can keep up with areas that don’t fall directly within your own sphere of study. You can bounce ideas around and nothing really hangs on being right or winning an argument. And sometimes someone who really knows what they’re talking about drops by and sparks off a whole new train of thought.
There are added benefits as the common room conversation decamps to the pub. You can half-articulate thoughts that would never make it to paper, and find out in the process whether your argument stands up. And occasionally you can just go wildly off-topic and have a good rant which some poor soul somewhere may find amusing.
July 7th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
Your post, as usual, is fascinating. I find your comments about academia particularly interesting. I wonder if the perspective from within academia is substantially different than without; I would point to the large number of academics who blog — often touching on points outside their areas of expertise. The reality of academic life is that like every career, it has its share of the mundane, the over-specialized, and at least in American universities, there is some question as to whether faculty common rooms actually exist. (As with so many aspects of life, idealism fades with age, so perhaps graduate students experience more of the pure Platonic dialogue than faculty members. And, as we say here in the US [this doesn't quite carry over to UK academic ranks]: some professors are more full than others.)
Lest my remarks be incorrectly read as having a touch of weltschmerz — let me hasten to add that academics have more freedom in their intellectual pursuits than most other careers; and for those who cherish research, it has many benefits as a career choice. However, as with so many careers, I think the perspective from inside is different than from outside. (I have heard many clergy say that this is true for ecclesiastic careers.)
July 7th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
doug–
i like to think about things.
then discuss them with others.
then think some more.
five years ago i was awarded? earned? a masters degree in pastoral theology from a catholic university. there are 150 alumni/alumnae from my university that graduated near or since my graduation date.
i tried to start a regular retreat weekend (twice a year) among alumni/alumnae last year.
sent out 150 letters.
got two participants.
like you, responding to blogging is currently my only connection to scholarship.
i appreciate Tim’s ‘rewards of blogging,’ and wish i had been as articulately rich in my appeal to others, to come think with me.
in some ways, my education was about indoctrination, in some ways about training, and in other ways about being exposed to as many academic stimuli as possible. once there is a basic understanding of the paradigm and the tools, stimulus is what i consider to be the backbone of education.
i’m glad you and so many others are thinking out loud in blogs, and for now, i’ll just tag along.
thanks again for the interesting stimuli.
scott
July 8th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Interesting. I only discovered you recently (via Ancient Hebrew Poetry I think - that or Better Bibles) and I assumed you’d been blogging for a long time. You seem to have a very settled style. We also seem to have a remarkable amount in common.
The best thing I’ve read related to this topic actually comes from Philip Pullman, in an interview, and I liked it so much I stuck it on the side of my computer. It says: “follow the whole of your nature and write the book that only you can write, and see what happens”. Change ‘book’ to ‘blog’ and there’s enough of an explanation for anyone. BTW FWIW my answer to the question is here.
July 8th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Iyov & Sam: I enjoy your blogs muchly. Scott, I encourage you to start one.
July 9th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Hi Doug,
You’ve inspired me. I left my own response to your question on Imaginary Grace.