Writing, As Opposed to Blogging

Steven Johnson's Everything Bad Is Good for You will be out in just a few weeks, and he's explaining to readers of his website why the book didn't creep into the blog while he was writing it:

"[F]or me at least, the trick of writing a book is somehow shedding all the layered, time-shifted contortions of writing, and somehow recreating what it would feel like to sit down as a newcomer to the book and start reading... approaching the book as though you yourself were a new reader, entering into that private, linear, slow exchange that is book reading. And private, linear, slow is exactly the opposite of the experience of blogging."

I can relate: As much as part of me wanted to share all the stuff that was spilling out during the drafting of The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane, I deliberately chose to keep it all in until I'd figured out what the hell I wanted to say. Well, okay, every once in a while a really neat photo came up, and I had to post it, but I held onto my ideas about the films and their connections to each other (and to American culture) until I could hammer everything together into a thesis. How well I did will be for you to judge come the fall, but Steven's done a great job with Everything--and the only beans I'll spill right now is that after reading it, you'll never feel guilty about watching reality TV again.