Tuesday, January 15, 2008

You'd think that in the 5 days since I last blogged that something blog-worthy would have happened. This is particularly strange since I don't seem to have any standards for how interesting or intellectual a topic should be. I've blogged about farting before. Are we to believe that nothing that interesting has happened this week? I think I just have blogger's block.

Someone, maybe it was my high school English teacher, explained how to start writing. He said if you have a topic, like perhaps San Francisco, and you can't figure out what would possibly be interesting to write about it, then think smaller. He suggested, for example, that we could try to start by writing about a particular building in San Francisco instead. If that didn't work, then go even more specific, and focus on a single brick in a specific wall of a particular building.

This spoke to me. The idea of focusing on the details about what made a single brick different from all other bricks seemed much easier than finding something of significance to say about an entire city.

One of my all-time favorite books, The Mezzanine* by Nicholson Baker, took this idea to the absurd. Baker spent the bulk of the novel focusing on tiny details of the protagonist's life. Many pages were dedicated to dissecting topics like shoe-tying, straw usage, and other minutia of everyday life. In all sincerity, I can say that this was fascinating to me. Hearing someone articulate the details of previously mindless bits of my life was illuminating to me. What do you think when you tie your shoes? As it turns out, I find that interesting.

This is probably why 99% of my blog posts are just daily fluff. I can't say many insightful things about politics, but I am the #1 Worldwide Expert on my most recent trip to the grocery store.

So, why the blog post drought? Just lazy, I guess.


*Despite the fact that The Mezzanine is a favorite of mine, I hesitate to recommend it. People near and dear to my heart have found it a complete bore, and I can completely understand why.

8 comments:

Lia Hollander said...

It's ok that you don't really have something to write about. I'm still thinking about your old blog posts.

There I was cleaning the bathroom with my Simple Green cleaner (lemon scented) thinking, "Why exactly do I want my bathroom to smell like lemons?" and "If Mike doesn't want his dishes to smell like lemons I wonder what he wants his bathroom to smell like."

Mike said...

I am fine with my bathroom smelling like lemons. I'm not planning on eating hamburgers, bacon, or chocolate mousse in there. Frankly, any fruity scent is better than the other possible odors in my bathroom.

Avery Gray said...

I have found that beating hobos tends to provide impetus for prolific blogging. Not only is it great fun, but there is an intrinsic cardiovascular value to be found in the act, manifested in greater blood flow to the brain, which leads to increased cerebral activity and improved mental acuity. Plus, the subsequent criminal trials and incarcerations, particularly if the beatings get "out of hand", provide limitless opportunities for observing all manners of the human condition, sometimes uncomfortably close and far too personal.

But, hey, you'll never complain about not having anything to blog about, right?

Mike said...

Goddamn. I do love a good hobo beat-down. I'm in.

yajeev said...

let me extend the same courtesy to you that you have extended to me: if ever in a blog drought, feel free to lift an idea or entire post from my blog.

no one will notice. i probably won't even notice.

Mike said...

Yajeev, that's a very generous offer. I may steal your post about the funeral service. That was a goody.

Sue said...

Do we have to wait another 5 days for another nothing post? C'mon!

Mike said...

Sue, only 4 days! I came in under the wire!