From Barbara Kingsolver to John Stuart Mill: a reason to blog.

“A terrifying miracle. These words were all written in dark, quiet rooms. How can they face the bright, noisy world? You must know. You open your skin and pour yourself on a canvas. And then let the curators drape your intestines all around the halls, for the ruckus of society gossips. Can it be survived?"  - Harrison Shepherd, writing to his artist friend on the eve of his own novel's publication (The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver).

Given that this is my first ever blog post, I can identify with Harrison Shepherd; the revealing of one's thoughts for all to see is no risk-free business. Of course, unlike Harrison I am not actually about to publish a novel. Still, the thought of publishing a blog hardly fills me with less trepidation.

Despite the potential catharsis of finding an outlet for vanity, both Harrison and I find that the fear of exposure remains considerable. So why on earth are so many people doing it?? (Ours is after all THE generation of ceasless blogging, twitterering and facebook status updating.)

Perhaps simply because we are Narcissus, obsessed by our own reflection and convinced that the rest of the world would be likewise if they could only see it clearly.
No doubt vanity does have something to do with it... let's be honest Katherine. But I'm certainly not so convinced as Narcissus. It will take more than my current ego alone (well-established as it is) to make the fear of having my depths scorned by the world a risk worth taking. So given that my vanity is significant but not sufficient, why publish?

Perhaps most blogs avoid the risk by simply not sharing self. Thus the danger of exposure is neutralised. Unfortunately I have not yet discovered a sure-fire way of writing without revealing more about myself than I intended, so this one is a rather empty option.
So what's left to make the risk worth it? 2 reasons perhaps...

Firstly, the pursuit of truth.

I love John Stuart Mill and it's not unlikely that I'll quote him again in the near future. But infatuations with dead philosophers aside, I've increasingly come to appreciate as Mill did that the pursuit of truth requires dialogue. For Mill, that was a reason to allow freedom of speech;

“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”

John Stuart Mill

If truth is indeed refined in the battle of alternatives then a man simply cannot find the fullness of truth in isolation. We must not remain alone and safe with our soul-stained pages, unexposed to the world as we quest for depth. Man is a political animal, molded and made real in community. So perhaps we write and we publish because we have a sense that it's not simply the writing of our words that makes them live, but the reading of them by another.

Secondly, perhaps we blog to think. Certainly the pressure of an audience is a wonderful (if somewhat intimidating) stimulus to pursue knowledge. The possibility of correction forces one to do their homework I suppose. And sometimes just writing a thought down refines and clarifies it. I think this is what I miss about university; the pressure to form coherent, readable thoughts. As another blogger once said  “Because I blog about my thoughts, I have more of them. I blog, therefore I think.” Taking this a step further, I'm blogging about books I've read because the blogging enforces reflection. And as Edmund Burke puts it (and I agree) "Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting".

Of course, no doubt much of what I think and write will still be half-formed and ill-thought. Blogging is not some sort of miracle cure after all.

To truth and growth then; A sufficient reason for exposing our souls in the blogosphere?

I'll let you know how it pans out...