Small Thoughts

An essay on writings about "bad behavior" in The New York Times Book Review inspires me to mention a kind of writing I do not admire: The snide, self-aggrandizing humor piece.
This type of writing attempts to show the superiority of the writer's intellect by belittling both the subject and the reader. It seems to me that it is particularly prevalent in "men's" magazines.
I don't often see pieces of this type written by women, possibly because it is an expression of a particular kind of machismo.
Yes, this kind of writing may be funny. It is akin to a certain type of performance comedy -- Dennis Miller comes to mind. I often laugh, but I don't feel better afterwards.
Maybe the degree of skill with which it is done is a compelling factor. Probably so, because if it is well-done, I suspect this type of humor would be lauded, even or perhaps especially by me, as incisive satire.
Example: I feel a lot better about Jon Stewart's humor than I do about recent Dennis Miller, for example. As for Mr. Miller, either he was a lot funnier 20 years ago, or I was more receptive to this type of humor at that stage of my life. Maybe a bit of both.
Maybe the problem is what I mentioned above: That in some cases, the target of this writing appears to be both the subject and the reader, and the overall point seems to be to display the superiority of the writer's intellect. It is the self-aggrandizing aspect to which I object, I suspect.

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I will not tell you the URLs of my blogs. Part of the pleasure of blogging -- at least to me -- is the sense of leaving behind something that is exposed just enough that a curiosity seeker or a causal wanderer may stumble upon it and find value.
I know that some blogs are meant to be widely read -- the political blogs that got so much attention last year, for example. But in my perusal of blogs, I come across so many that seem intensely personal that I suspect many more bloggers believe as I do that the blog should be a discovered artifact.

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Maybe this is part of my problem: I love reading too much for it to be merely an avocation. It needs to be my vocation. The only job I ever had that demanded reading was my clerking stint at the Washington bureau of The New York Times. If only that had paid enough to be a career position ...

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Here's another thing I love about blogging. I can write down thoughts without having to structure them into a complete essay. Whatever comes to mind can be put to words, and published instantly.

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OK. I'm into quotes this week (actually, always have been. Just seem to be coming across some good ones this week).


"For every complex question there is a simple answer, and it is wrong."
- H. L. Mencken