Postmodern blogging goes too far

I don’t like to pontificate on the processes of writing too much – writers who write about writing are a very tedious read for non-writers. Bloggers who blog about blogging are much the same. But really! I chanced upon the blog of someone who likes to call herself a writer – a girl much like me – has never had anything published but indeed, has a degree in the subject. Hurrah, thinks I, at last a kindred spirit. But what do I find? Non-English, half sentences, subjects as worthy as “I ran out of deodorant this morning.” What self-indulgence! At least if I am going to bore people, I try to do it in an informative, educational or thought provoking way.

Undoubtedly when I re-read this in a few weeks time it will sound as snotty as something you would read in The Times, but I am familiar with postmodernism, I am familiar with sarcasm, but both of those particular activities require some intellectual force behind them. You will never get published as a writer if the extent of your writing abilities is posting the results of personality tests, the status of one’s toiletries, and yes, one’s own personalised viking name. I know, I know, I personally share part of the blame as an initiator of the dreaded “name generator posting in blog” phenomenon, and as such will be one of the first up against the wall when the revolution comes. I have seen people’s fairy and vampire names in a hundred different blogs. But I have read some good blogs as a result, often from teenagers – precocious young girls with ample drama and emotion in their lives, or merely the ability to make astute observations. They do not pretend to call themselves writers.