I mentioned in my introductory post that I had a short-lived blog, Being and Formulating. Although that blog never became what I wanted it to be, I am still quite fond of the quote that inspired the title. The title comes from a quote from the diaries of Anais Nin. I came across this quote second-hand from Brassai’s book Henry Miller: The Paris Years:
In Miller’s mind…to commit the events of one day, or even one hour, to paper takes days if not weeks. Anais would therefore never catch up with events, and her Diary would never be truly current. Moreover, all she was doing by trying was postponing the exhilaration of life, the moments in whose heat you would never think of writing. The pulse of life makes any formulation impossible…All the diary can reflect are life’s stagnant period, what Andre Breton called the ‘empty moments’ of existence. Anais wouldn’t always avoid throwing herself into the current of life. She too would directly confront the dilemma of whether to live or to write. She herself says as much in her Diary: ‘The river of life divides into two branches: being and formulating.’
I decided to re-post it on this new blog because the sentiment translates well into the world of blogging. And this would be the optimistic reason why people start and then abandon blogs. People are too busy “being” to take the time to write about their lives. Were I to focus on the pessimistic reasons why people give up their blogs, I would have named that blog “Being and Laziness” (or “Laziness and Laziness”).
Of course, I’m making assumptions here that seem obvious but might not be. I have my experience of Tombrarian taking a life of it’s own while several other attempts have failed. I’m curious to hear other people’s experience with trying various blogs and having some succeed while others fail.