Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Blog As Personal Journal

For many years I kept a personal journal. It was a little flowery book with a locket on the side and I kept it under my mattress next to my Barbie dolls. (No, wait, that was the diary I found on the playground when I was eight.)

But lots of writers do keep personal journals. There are actually some famous ones out there. For example, The Journals of John Cheever was published some twenty years ago to both critical and commercial acclaim. Cheever's journals were given even greater cult status after they showed up in a Seinfeld episode. More recently, I noted that the Journals of Joyce Carol Oates were scheduled for publication. Obviously, a massive tome that will chronicle her entire life and thoughts about writing.

Now, my journals have been nothing along this scope, but as I've thought about journaling more recently, I've come to the conclusion that my blogs have become something akin to my journals. They possess the same kind of rapier wit (?) and cynicism that my journals might reveal.

Anyway...enjoy my journals.

1 comment:

Michelle Kallock Knight said...

Blogs are journals of a sort, but nothing like the personal journal I keep which I have sworn my husband to burn upon my death. There is stuff in there- that is meant for God's eyes only. That's what makes journaling such a great process/experince!