An Uncharacteristically Public Statement

Publishing for the public audience has not been a goal of mine, generally speaking. Writing for publication has never excited me the way a rich, thoughtful conversation excites me. I'm just not cut out to be an intellectual onanist.

I felt that way even while working to get my Ph.D. in English. I knew that my predelection for doing (l)it rather than writing about (l)it wouldn't take me to and over the top.

One of my fellow grad students at U of Illinois, Craig Werner, said to me once about an article he was writing for publication, "Somebody really has to say this!" Clearly, to him, the series of articles published in academic journal constituted something like a dialogue. (It's really cool that now he's one of the top scholars of--get this!--rock and roll.) But anyway, talking to other people via academic journals that take years to publish? Not for me.

So, my question is: is this world of blogging more like a conversation than like publication? I guess I'll have to wait and see.

I'll probably get replies only from people searching for the term "onanism."

Whatever.