Henry Darger was a recluse; a penniless janitor who would mutter to himself -- often in peculiar dialects – but avoided conversing with his neighbors. When he moved from his cramped Chicago apartment to live out the remainder of his days in a Catholic charity-ward, few people missed the peculiar old man or thought he was worthy of attention.
When Darger’s landlords went to clean out his apartment, though, they were surpised to discover one of the strangest and most prolific artistic and literary outputs ever found: a 15,000 page fantasy novel, an incomplete 8,000-page sequel, hundreds of paintings, collages, and illustrations to accompany his text, and a monumental autobiography of Darger's troubled life. A neighbor, visiting him days before his death, told the eccentric artist that he was amazed by the beautiful discovery. Darger, dumbstruck that someone might have found his work of interest said only, “Well, it’s too late now.”
He was wrong. Thirty years after his death, more people know the “real” Henry Darger than ever did when he was alive. His paintings have made him a darling of “outsider art” and his work has entered the pop-culture zeitgeist in the form of poetry, graphic novels, punk bands, and Internet games. Darger was able to do posthumously what he was never capable of doing while he lived: communicate with other people.
Darger died in 1972, decades before the advent of the Internet. But it is interesting to imagine what might have been possible if instead of typing his magnum opus on a typewriter he had serialized it in blog format. Had he shared his personal story through this new medium he might have been shunned as a eccentric scribbler or embraced as a cult novelist. But he likely would not have died unread.
Blogging is so often overhyped that it's easy to become skeptical about its long-term cultural impact. Still, it appears obvious that blogs will leave future historians with an incredibly detailed documentation of life in the early 21st century. Rather than having to sift through dust covered journals penned by Colonial-era housewives or semi-literate former slaves from the Reconstruction period, scholars will be able to search thousands – perhaps millions – of blogs in order to get a sense of how people of our era lived. The micro view of history will be accessible on a macro level.
Indeed, once the trend has matured and blogging becomes as commonplace as watching television, the effects could be immeasurable. A teenager, for instance, who took up blogging in 2001, will leave a written output that rivals Darger’s by the time they reach retirement. Multiply this prodigious level by millions of bloggers and it’s hard not to be impressed by the staggering bulk of these individual narratives.
Admittedly, the collected works of most bloggers will be of no interest to the vast majority of the population. But the impact is not necessarily measured by the size of the audience. Imagine, for example, if you could read the blog entries of your parents the month before they meet, the thoughts of your favorite teacher during a critical formative event, or the musings of a young pastor who later becomes a renowned theologian. Entries that might appear insignificant or trivial to most readers could have a profound effect on an audience of one.
But why should we wait for the future before we take advantage of this ability? Why should we not avail ourselves of this incredibly rich resource that lies before us? Instead of wasting our time and attention on the latest celebrity memoir, why not read the autobiography of a blogger?
There is something counterintuitive about taking such an approach. With the exception of those who focus on journaling, few bloggers write in a way that would be considered purely autobiographical. But as philosopher Mortimer Adler noted, “There’s a great deal of Plato in The Republic, of Milton in Paradise Lost, of Goethe in Faust - though we may not be able to put our finger on it exactly. If we are interested in humanity, we will tend, within reasonable limits, to read any book partly with an eye to discovering the character of its author.” Blogs, like books, have a way of revealing the characters of their authors.
Rather than present an argument for why we should care about the lives of other bloggers (I take it for granted that anyone who is concerned about community will have an interest in their fellow man), I offer a few modest suggestions for how to get the most out of reading a blog as autobiography:
Choose a blogger -- Choosing a blogger to read in this manner will, of course, be a matter of taste. You might prefer someone who explores the contours of their emotional lives or opt to spend time studying a blogger whose opinions or ideas you find particularly intriguing. The types of bloggers are almost as varied as the people who blog but they all reveal themselves in some way. Having an understanding of why you choose a particular blogger, however, will help you gain the most out of the task.
The deeper the better -- While insights can be gleaned from new bloggers, you’ll likely find such a reading more fruitful if you focus on someone who has at least six months worth of posts. While the depths of an archive do not ensure you’ll find vast treasures, as a general rule the more posts that you have to sift through the more likely you’ll be to find some gems.
Read chronologically -- One of the most useful aspects of blogs is that they allow you to find information in a number of ways – by search word, category, month, etc. But for autobiographical reading it helps to read chronologically, starting with the bloggers first entry and reading forward. Doing so will give you a sense of how they’ve revealed themselves over the course of their blogging. You’ll also be surprised at how their style changes as they mature and grow more comfortable with the medium.
Handling links -- Almost every post will contain links referencing other sites or posts on other blogs. Unless the links are essential to understanding, avoid the temptation to follow them away from the blog you’re studying. Often it is more important, for autobiographical reading, to apprehend what the links says about the blogger (i.e., do they value the opinions of other more highly than their own?) than it is to follow the link and become distracted by the details of the topic.
Skim for comprehension -- Many blog posts will be about ephemeral concerns (i.e., news events) that are no longer of much interest. Skim these entries for contextual clues that might reveal something about the character of the bloggers but avoid becoming bogged down on mundane subjects. Try to imagine why they viewed the topic as worth writing about. Also, check for patterns in their topics and take note if they have a tendency to write about issues that are of no lasting value.
Search for epiphanies -- Not every post is of equal merit so liberally skim those that of only passing interest. Spend the bulk of your time on the posts that are obviously more revelatory. While this may appear to be an obvious point, it is the inverse of the way that most blog reading is done. We often tend to read the short post in their entirety while skimming over the lengthy, more thoughtful entries.
Allocate the time -- Don’t try to complete the task in one sitting. Consider how long it would take you to read a memoir or celebrity biography and allot that same amount of time for a blogger’s autobiography. If the blogger is not worthy of the time you’d spend reading the latest tome on Paris Hilton, then they are likely not worth reading at all.
Ask questions -- Not only should you ask questions that you hope will be answered in your reading, but you should feel free to ask questions that are left unanswered. If at the conclusion of the project you are left with unsettled questions, write the blogger, tell them what you are doing, and ask them to clarify the points that remain. Most bloggers will be flattered that you have taken such an interest and --assuming that your questions are not inappropriate-- will gladly provide an answer.
Share your findings -- Once you have completed an autobiographical reading of a blog, share what you have learned with others. If you gain something worthwhile then pass that information on to your own readers. Point out intriguing posts that you’ve stumbled upon – even if they were written several months or years ago. All too often the blogosphere focuses on the current at the expense of the enduring.
Note: More of the "How to Blog" and the "Notes on Blogging" series can be found at this index.
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Choose a blogger -- . . . You might prefer someone who explores the contours of their emotional lives or opt to spend time studying a blogger whose opinions or ideas you find particularly intriguing . . .
Or, you could choose a blogger who lives in New York City and doesn't have a girlfriend, and just sort of keep an open mind . . .
posted on 10.03.2005 10:53 AM2
While I can see that this may be an interesting approach to getting to know a blogger better, I would advise readers to be cautious in drawing conclusions about a blogger's personality, values, and beliefs solely from reading their blog entries. Speaking from personal experience, I know that it's easy to misinterpret intent, misattribute opinions, and mistake satire for seriousness. The words that we scribble on our blogs are but one window into our world.
posted on 10.03.2005 11:50 AM3
Henry Darger -- now there's a guy with a rather different "worldview" ...
posted on 10.03.2005 12:33 PM4
Still, it appears obvious that blogs will leave future historians with an incredibly detailed documentation of life in the early 21st century. Rather than having to sift through dust covered journals penned by Colonial-era housewives or semi-literate former slaves from the Reconstruction period, scholars will be able to search thousands – perhaps millions – of blogs in order to get a sense of how people of our era lived. The micro view of history will be accessible on a macro level.
Well, I think there are some serious questions about this. First off, What happens to EO if Joe stops paying his IP? Zip, it's gone. Google may archive some pages for a while but for how long? Why is there any reason to suppose that a record of this blog will exist in some form in the 22nd century? If so, how?
One thing to remember is a lesson from the past. Namely what happens to some forms of archived media, such as films and books. Many of the earliest films are sitting on shelves dissolving into goo because of the materials used to create them. The American Film Institute spends millions each year to copy them to more durable media, but each year they irrevocably lose some early films.
And remember the problems with acid-treated paper? Books from the 18th century in many respects have a much better chance of surviving the ages than books from the 19th and 20th because they were created on acid-free paper. Great numbers of books are lost each year as they sit on the bookshelf and slowly disintegrate. Do you have any books from your childhood? What do they look like now? Yellowed, brittle and fragile? How much longer do you think they will last?
At the time that I'm typing this statement, this blog and all it's contents are stored in a magnetic recording on a series of hard drives in a server. Probably in a RAID array. What happens if a hard drive fails? Another takes over. What happens if that one fails too? What happens if someone accidentally erases the backups? Or the Dog chews up your CD backup?
The media of a blog is not even as durable as paper. It's much more susceptible to being erased or destroyed. The records left by those "Colonial-era housewives or semi-literate former slaves" may long outlast any diary left by you or me Joe.
posted on 10.03.2005 4:38 PM5
Patrick,
First off, What happens to EO if Joe stops paying his IP? Zip, it's gone.
Au contraire. It will be safely stored in a server under a mountain in San Francisco (seriously) by the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/).
posted on 10.03.2005 4:42 PM7
Most thought-provoking. Does this mean that I should be telling people more about my personal life than about my views on things that interest me in the world around?
posted on 10.04.2005 7:10 PM