In search of: SiaO's mythology

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2009/02/16 03:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2009/02/16/9424838.aspx

It has now been two weeks since Where's Waldo^H^H^H^H^HMichael? (aka It probably wasn't worth the wait and yet you waited!) and there has only been one blog after it.

There is a problem getting off the ground here. I think I'll try and explain why, if I can.

Did you ever watch The X-Files?

There were always two kinds of episodes:

• The "monster-of-the-week" episodes which stand on their own with all kinds of random situations and creatures, none of which were related to the overall themes of the series (e.g. the extra-government conspiracy around extraterrestrials);
• The Mytharc episodes that dealt with the aforementioned overall themes.

Now the latter made up at most 1/3 of the episodes of the original series, but it is no accident that they were always the two-parters, the ones at the beginning and end of the season, and the ones to show up Sweeps.

They really were like the yeast that helped the bread of the series rise.

Well, there are the same two different kinds of blogs in this Blog -- the blogs that stand on their own and just talk about specific (often externally reported) issues, and the blogs that tie into the mythology of my random stuff of dubious value.

The lines were often blurry, even for me as I wrote, since sometimes what began as the former would turn into the latter as I investigated and found that there were larger issues. And I tried to make sure that even if you didn't care about larger issues that there would be some value in each blog since you might never read another (especially if you came in via a Google search as most of my traffic seems to).

But for me, the Mytharc blogs are the ones that drive the Blog; the standalone ones just fill in the dead space.

I know that the person asking the question I might have been answering or the people that found my answer via Google might not agree, but they are obviously feeling a bit more self-centered so it is no big deal that they have trouble seeing the importance of the other Blogs -- they probably aren't even reading them at all, or at least even close to as carefully.

And here we come to the problem, the thing that has kept me from blogging (beyond random trips to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, where I was really way too busy to blog!).

My cup runneth under when it comes to the Mythology lately, in part for the reason I talked about in Where's Waldo^H^H^H^H^HMichael? (aka It probably wasn't worth the wait and yet you waited!), but in part for the larger reason that I think I have turned the corner on the whole Liz thing (finally?) in part due to internalizing an old Henry James quote¹, but am not really feeling inspired by the same larger themes that inspired me previously.

So I think I have been able to have fun and enjoy myself, but not to get the Blog thing figured out.

I kind of faked it for a year or so, writing with the larger themes I had on hand even if I wasn't feeling them the same way.

And it was a busy year -- I was going out, traveling, eating, drinking, sleeping, and everything else one does when one is living. Though I was just existing for the bulk of it.

Going through the motions.

(song title!)

Anyway, I was kind of faking it, and several regular readers would call me on that from time to time.

When you use no yeast or old yeast or (dare I say it?) stale yeast, then one thing is for sure and for certain -- the bread will not taste the same as it did.

Some would think of the last year as the largest number of CLb's (Career Limiting blogs) published since this Blog's inception -- just goes to show you the down side to baking bread with no yeast.

For most people making use of the Blog that would probably be just fine since the traffic is mostly coming from Google searches anyway. Except for one thing.

Me.

I can't write that way.

I need something to drive me -- the larger themes, the Blog's mythology. I just feel like I can't fake the yeast anymore.

There are still things going on that are interesting, and things that interest me (I mentioned several in Where's Waldo^H^H^H^H^HMichael? (aka It probably wasn't worth the wait and yet you waited!) and that is just for starters).

And people are still asking questions.

So I will keep writing on and off, covering all that stuff, while I am searching for new themes. New inspirations. New mythology.

If you are a regular reader who is disappointed by this, I'm sorry -- truly I don't want to let people down.

When I come back (and yes, I do plan to come back full strength, eventually) I may with whatever changes lose some more regular readers, the ones who would also probably visit celebrities and tell them how they used to be cool.

But if you want to hang in there, then by extension of my #1 philosophy in this blog (never write anything I wouldn't read), there is a better-than-average chance that I won't disappoint you.

Or her....

(for Liz)

1 - The quote in question: "Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact." - Henry James

This post brought to you by ྊ (U+0f8a, a.k.a. TIBETAN SIGN GRU CAN RGYINGS)

John Cowan on 16 Feb 2009 12:07 PM:

Simon Buchan on 16 Feb 2009 3:49 PM:

Michael S. Kaplan on 16 Feb 2009 6:18 PM:

Bulletmagnet on 17 Feb 2009 7:52 AM:

go to newer or older post, or back to index or month or day