The OF Blog: Why review?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Why review?

Gav of NextRead asks that question, or rather "Why reviews matter?" over on his blog.  Just now noticed this, since I've been all sorts of busy the past day or so, but for once, it's the good sort of busy.  Interesting responses.

I know I've blogged on this issue before several times, often writing at length on various facets of it, but I think the question could be turned around and viewed as being a corollary to that "duh" question asked of writers:  Why do writers write (especially if most of them won't be published or make much money from it if they do end up having their work published)?

Sometimes, there's this mountain that appears, it's there, so why not climb it (or blog about it, dissect it, or whatever you'd like to do that would involve some form of consent or at least acquiescence)?  That's all that matters.  I don't care if what I write is "correct" or "right" as much as I care about exploring things and generating something that I could learn from and which might generate a good, interesting conversation.  Anything else is just extra.  But hey, if the words I write can get some positive attention, great.  However, my best words are saved for an audience of one (well, two, if I count myself as well).  But I'll spare you any interpretations of Les Fleurs du Mal for now...

1 comment:

gav (NextRead.co.uk) said...

Thanks for linking to my blog. It turned out different than I expected when I asked the question. I didn't expect to come to the conclusion that I did. And I hope it has value to others.

I guess the point of NaNoWriMo is to push at that mountain and to do the exploring and see if you can reach the top. Some like me don't but learn from the climb...

... in the sense of books there is another mountain. A strange ever changing mountain range in fact. And each of us starts from a different face and from a different place.

I guess we just need to challenge and explore ourselves to find our own meaning and the meaning around us?

 
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