I've been thinking for a while about this blog, about how to write about "personal" topics. I mean, I know I want to write about political things, literary things, but the personal piece seems a whole lot harder...like who checks this thing? What do I want whom to know? And it all becomes complicated. After all, do I (or we) really control what other people know anymore? Have we ever?
Rumors have always taken the secrets of people and transmitted them. People have always had images of other people, ideas about how they are that get transmitted from one person to another. But now, Google has worked wonders to tear down any shred of personal or private life left. A quick search of anyone's name gives a whole panorama of who that person is, a window on what they have done and how they have registered him or herself in the world. Especially if you have a particularly unique first or last name.
Intellectually, I can take apart the entire concept of something personal and private, removed from the communal. I also reject privacy as an end. As a means it might be productive, but as an end, it seems to only lead to bourgeois comfort and seclusion from the rowdy, unwashing masses. But emotionally, it is a lot more difficult. What does privacy protect? What can we keep private? What is it worth keeping private?
Maybe it's like the kid who comes out of the closet to his friends and family and everyone says, "Yeah, we knew the whole time, we were just waiting for you. Wondering why you hadn't talked about it yet." Everyone probably already knows or can find out just about everything about you anyway. No use hiding then.
I have been looking at some other blogs too, to see how other people are negotiating these questions. See Gwendolyn Zepeda's blog. Or Liliana Blum's blog. Or Heriberto Yépez' blog. Or Moorishgirl. There are a lot of ways to talk about yourself or not talk about yourself.
Clearly, I won't resolve this in this post, but anyhow, just putting it out there as a question seems important. How do you, if you blog, deal with this?
Rumors have always taken the secrets of people and transmitted them. People have always had images of other people, ideas about how they are that get transmitted from one person to another. But now, Google has worked wonders to tear down any shred of personal or private life left. A quick search of anyone's name gives a whole panorama of who that person is, a window on what they have done and how they have registered him or herself in the world. Especially if you have a particularly unique first or last name.
Intellectually, I can take apart the entire concept of something personal and private, removed from the communal. I also reject privacy as an end. As a means it might be productive, but as an end, it seems to only lead to bourgeois comfort and seclusion from the rowdy, unwashing masses. But emotionally, it is a lot more difficult. What does privacy protect? What can we keep private? What is it worth keeping private?
Maybe it's like the kid who comes out of the closet to his friends and family and everyone says, "Yeah, we knew the whole time, we were just waiting for you. Wondering why you hadn't talked about it yet." Everyone probably already knows or can find out just about everything about you anyway. No use hiding then.
I have been looking at some other blogs too, to see how other people are negotiating these questions. See Gwendolyn Zepeda's blog. Or Liliana Blum's blog. Or Heriberto Yépez' blog. Or Moorishgirl. There are a lot of ways to talk about yourself or not talk about yourself.
Clearly, I won't resolve this in this post, but anyhow, just putting it out there as a question seems important. How do you, if you blog, deal with this?