Pepys as Blogger

March 4, 2006

The blog, it may have struck some of you, is really a glorified diary/journal entry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge used his journal to keep track of his thoughts on philosophy and literature, Samuel Pepys wrote about the every day events of his life, Thoreau made comments on the natural world, while Casanova would have noted his sexual exploits.. and I guess that kind of summarizes the opportunities for a blog. The greatest difference between an old-fashioned journal entry and a modern blog is the public nature of the experience.. one's thoughts are there for everyone to see, and that naturally enforces a certain amount of self-consciousness.. but come on, most authors were always busy imagining how people would read their journals.. someday, then the world recognized their genius.

How Samuel Pepys would have looked as a blogger is evident on one fascinating website. Some dedicated soul must type up his daily entries and post them. As time passes, certain key words and characters are glossed on the website, and the reader can track down some of the details of life in Restoration England. Another website tries to do something similar with Thoreau, although in this case the aim appears to be a little more inspirational.. although the same care is not taken to provide an historical context.

Many earlier writers would gain from having their journal entries posted in a blog format.. So often journal volumes are both expensive and unreadable, a deadly combination, and I hate to stoop to abridged treatments of an author since precisely what is interesting about a journal is the daily-lived feel they get.. the slow working out of ideas. That is lost when one just pulls out the "gist" of a journal. I would be absolutely devoted to any website that gave me a daily unshortened dose of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, for example..