Why I'm blogging

As I wrote in "about sam-plings" (to the right), I started this blog so that I can get into a regular habit of writing, which I need to be more disciplined about since I'm currently writing my dissertation. It's the final step--and by far the most difficult--I'll take in my graduate career before I finally get my PhD and hopefully, a tenure-track job.

Writing a dissertation is almost equivalent to writing a book (it's roughly the same length as the average book)--but not just any book. My readers are four very smart people who have all published widely-read books themselves (at least in lit crit circles); in addition, I'm writing about literature, which means I'm writing about writing. Lastly, the authors and texts I write about are ones that I care about and deeply respect.

All this has led to a reluctance to write. I've been researching and reading on my topic for over a year now, but that's the fun and easy part. Concocting and designing arguments that have not already been proffered before--that's what has me frozen at the moment. It's not really a crisis of confidence--I haven't gotten this far without a certain amount of confidence in my ideas and my ability to analyze--but that at this point I think I'm expecting too much out of myself. The first step is just to get my ideas on paper. I can always revise.

As far as this blog goes, I will rarely touch on my diss. A couple models that I'm following are Andrew Sullivan's (he writes for The Atlantic), and my friend and teacher, Charlie Bertsch's blog. What I appreciate about Sullivan's blog is his radical openness to other people's ideas and to critiques of his own positions. He's a conservative (in the old-fashioned sense--suspicious of collective action and government intervention), which means I disagree with him quite a bit. But I tend not to read blogs by people who I know I will agree with, because I can always predict their position. Sullivan constantly surprises me with fresh takes that are well-argued and unpredictable. He also has a knack for staying on top of important cultural trends.

What I appreciate about my friend Charlie's blog is that 1) they're very smart 2) he covers a wonderful variety of topics (everything from music to his daughter to sports) 3) he's very honest without being solipsistic.

Anyhow, I hope that what I imagine will be a very small readership of this blog, at first, will eventually grow. If not, I'm glad to write to family and friends. In the least, I hope it functions as a way for people who I care about to get to know me better. Most of my posts will be brief, but occasionally, I'll take time to write longer, more involved posts (once a week?).