2023-03-31 21:59

Utility/Futility of Resurrecting a 20 year old Blog

Questionable how much there is to say on the utility/futility of resurrecting a 20 year old blog. A more particular instance of the great question on the utility/futility of questions generally or having things to say, generally.

Do people actually read blogs?

Human being as a giant eyeball that floats through a giant gallery looking, then liking or not liking, an endless series of spectacles.

I have the sense of the futility of writing, funnily enough, moreso than the futility of reading. Maybe because reading seems to be more inherently futile (because it is self-contained) whereas writing seems to have at least some promise of some potential contribution to Human Knowledge or whatever. But utility and futility are close cousins. Opposites are things that are the same in all respects but one. Like left and right gloves.

I also think about the mechanical nature of reading, which I love. It's such an industrial process. I know it slightly predates industrialization but, oh, maybe it was the first industrial process? It's a little like being a reverse typewriter (if you remember typewriters). Scan, scan, scan, next line. Whirrrr. Next paragraph. There is a book called Kids of the Book-Machine that I'll review, that I did review 15 years ago, if it was 15 years ago. That I'll re-review here soon... as with so many, the title is the most of it!

And the twilight of human culture as we are just about to be subsumed by the artificial or so some of us suppose! Which adds to the sense of futility? It would be nice if writing could be more like reading. Which maybe is the intention of Biblioddity. In some sense.

Anyhow, a few thoughts on a few unusual books at least, and a reason (for me) to read them a little more and to think about them a little more than usual. Title for something: On the Futilty of Utility. Might also like the idea of the utility of futility.