Good words from a wise man who has earned much of my admiration and respect. I have been meaning to get back into this whole "blogging" thing for some while now, but I was simply rather lazy about it, in truth. I didn't feel like I had the time to put into it. But, as a good friend of mine said not so very long ago, to become a better writer, one must write. I have been feeling a bit antsy wanting to start writing on here...but then it seemed there was a whole bandwagon-type occurrence where everyone and their roommate started blogging all at once. I didn't want to seem too much a follower of such a trend, if only because I prefer rather to set trends. But really, if I'm not jumping on the bandwagon of friends, how am I to expect to end up with any friends coming along for the ride? More on that in paragraph three.
Of late, I have been reading a good bit of work by one George MacDonald (thanks for the borrow, Mister Adam), and I thought it quite rightly fitting that a quote from him (George, not Adam--albeit many a word of Adam has proven inspirational) would spur me into action on something I've been putting off for far too long.
To my credit, if I can call it that, I did start blogging on this "Blogger" mechanism before anyone else I knew. This is probably also why I quit using it and, to my discredit, deleted my only existing post (from over a year ago), simply because no one was around to read it. So, yeah, I hopped off the wagon; but apparently, it's made its rounds by now and I just managed to pull myself up over the side as it passed this time through--although I did need that rather phantastic push from I almost knew not whence to help me up.
So, about the title, I don't think that the man who wrote this probably sometime in the mid- to late-1800s meant it to be inspiration for me to start blogging (what with Al Gore not even being alive to invent the internet yet...that I know of); however, I do believe he meant to inspire anyone who read it to action, rather than to trifling with thoughts or perhaps even intended actions. And, reading anything he wrote, it has such an intrinsic intuitive quality into the way thoughts and perceptions are formed that I felt I needed to share a bit of it. Often, in the midst of a novel, he falls into soliloquy regarding the innermost nature of man or something of equal relevance and importance, although it is most often suggested (or disguised) as merely some realization of one of the characters. On the surface, it appears as though he wouldn't mind if the reader just skimmed over these lines to get on with the story, but the words have made me stop reading entirely at times, merely to ponder the perfection of timing and eloquence and depth in how he put something so necessary into writing that I hadn't even realized was necessary before that very moment.
Now, if your preponderant tendencies in reading fall toward short prose and a lot of white space, you might be a bit disillusioned by this particular posting of mine (save that there does seem to be a whole lot of white space). I do not have any intent on how long my posts are going to be or how often I will update this, but I do think that the length of each post will vary significantly, and if you've made it this far into my first (second technically, I suppose) post, you apparently have found it at least entertaining, if not provocative of thought.
It is my hope, for my part in all of this, that I will be encouraged, even in the very writing of something, to continue my endeavors in the realm of fiction and poetry, each of which are also now being shaped in my mind by C.S. Lewis's master--and J.R.R. Tolkien's hero--of writing (that is, again, one George MacDonald, and again, not Adam--I have yet to read anything written by Adam, but would be interested to know if he has any such projects underway, or perhaps even finished?)
Although I feel that I would get more use out of this night if I were doing something a bit more physically active, this writing bit seems quite a worthwhile way to pass a little chunk of time. And besides, sometimes you have to just let your battles choose you because, in all truth, sometimes you don't get to choose your battles. Or at least, sometimes I don't get to choose mine. But I am rather certain that this is not an individualized phenomenon that has singled me out, but is more widespread among the human populace.
In other news, I, for one, am excited about the potential for a new Lestat book. Although Anne Rice seems to have directly contradicted what she had previously stated regarding her Vampire Chronicles, I do look forward to seeing her incorporate the idea of redemption into the series. I was rather certain it was inherently headed in that direction anyhow. If you haven't read them, I would recommend reading Anne Rice's Lestat series at least (the first five books of the chronicles; that is: Interview With the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, and Memnoch the Devil). It is a good chunk of reading, and some of it a bit heavy at times. But it's also good writing, and I think the progression of the books and everything said in them represents rather well the progression of the internal struggle of what Anne Rice's subconscious mind was trying to persuade her of as she (very, very slowly) turned from devout atheism back to Catholicism.
Odd note to leave you all on, I'm sure, especially since I doubt any of you (except Timothy, of course) have read much or any Anne Rice at all. But, I'm going to leave you on that note anyhow. Thanks for reading.
P.S. No puzzles on this blog...at least not for a good long little while.
