I love essays.
Yes, I realize this is weird and geeky of me. Essays are supposed to br those annoying things you have to write in English class. You turn them in, you get the grade, and you throw them away. Nobody is supposed to like essays.
But, what is an essay? The dictionary thinks that is a “…piece treating a subject from the author’s personal point of view.” So basically, it’s what you think about something. And really, who doesn’t have an opinion? I have an old book called Never at a loss for an opinion. As far as I can see, this describes almost everybody.
Just pick a subject, any subject. Dental Hygene? Bulldozers? Fly Fishing? It doesn’t matter. If the person in question knows anything about the subject at all, they’ll usually tell you all about it. Most will, anyway. A few people are wise enough to know when to keep quiet. Everyone else (and this includes me, by the way), will tell you what they think, and make fools out of themselves in the process.
I’m not sure that this is all bad, though. Sure, airing your stupid opinions on subjects you have no idea about is useless, but surely everyone has a few worthwhile thoughts. Thoughts that others would benefit from hearing. So, if you write these down, you’ll have an essay – and one that is worth reading. While you’re at it, why not put it on the Internet so anyone can read it?
Maybe this is what blogs are – a continuous essay of life. I don’t think so, though. Most blogs don’t have opinions, or arguments. They have information, often, news – sometimes, and lots of pointless rambling. now, back in the good olde days, pre-web 2.0, there used to be what might be called “essay site’s”. At least, that’s what I called them – I never saw anybody else use the term. But that’s what they were, websites full of essays. Coolest. Sites. Ever.
Unfortunately, most of them have shut down. The only one of my bookmarks that didn’t give a 404:
Curry Bucket’s Controversial Web Presence
It’s a pretty good example of what I’m talking about – but it’s also as dead as a doornail. Now the guy has a blog. (Which is not as cool – it’s all poetry)
And that was the problem with those sites. There really wasn’t any way to keep people checking the site day after day, like a blog, so the blogs won. But blogs don’t encourage the essay format at all. They are meant to be read soon after they’re written, and then disappear into the archive, never to be seen again. And who wants to read thorough endless archives to find a few dozen essay-quality posts.
So what’s the solution? An essay page. If you write something worth reading again, put it on a seperate page with a short summery of the post. That way you can use a blog, and people can find really good stuff without looking through endless archives.
The only page like this that I can think of is at the shakesville blog – they have
a feministing 101 page – basically an essay page. I’m sure there are others, but there need to be more. Every blog ought to have one.
Or maybe not. Maybe nobody really care what anybody else actually thinks. I know that I’d rather read an essay than see yet another picture of someone’s dog.