as of monday 9/6, 'the reading experience' is no longer being maintained as that blog in its original form. instead, its author plans to post at four new blogs: 'the reading experience 2.0,' which will feature reviews of new fiction, short critical essays and posts on general literary history; a first side blog that will treat only american authors the majority of whose careers fell in the period of the twentieth century after world war ii; a second side blog to amalgamate and direct readers to posts from throughout the wider lit crit world; and one last side blog devoted to more academic writing (e.g. reviews of academic books on contemporary fiction). it seems that the task of consistently and coherently accomplishing all of those other tasks at just one outlet became either counterproductive or simply counter-intuitive or a writer so deft at analysis and classification.
the blogosphere isn't going anywhere; and in fact, it's moves like these that should be proof enough that intelligent (or maybe just curious) readers will support the efforts of intelligent (or maybe just dedicated) independent internet writers. the old problems of quantity and the resultant difficulties surrounding sourcing/searching do persist, but we should by now have recognized that quality is achievable and has been achieved, and is encouraged by readers' demands and not just a narcissistic desire on the part of bloggers to self-publish (which continues to be at once our biggest fear as concerned readers and our biggest joy as idle writers). if you still don't agree (we clever people often mistake our stubbornness for being principled), a distillation of 'the reading experience' 1.0 is available as a paperback for $17.00. if we aren't allowed another wave of inspiration this week (bookslut's success story should have been enough for us, it's true), at least we can allow ourselves the pride of having understood that a blog is, if nothing else, a great vehicle for launching a book. buy mine.
where to? division and specialization, apparently. late stage capitalism. no big surprise there. but that the world of belles lettres has become more widely accessible to both consumers and purveyors might just mean that the internet is making good on that promise it made us for a new freedom for information. remember? it was right before we all settled for porno anyway. better to have loved and lost and all that. ...what elephant? let's not talk about money. just leave an envelope on the dresser. i'm too inspired for qualms this morning.
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