A new friend has asked if, instead of letting my angst and ennui drive my writing here at MyIrony, I should let my angst and ennui be my writing. If, instead of speaking from the safe distance of theological abstraction, I should embrace the danger of personal revelation.
So I ask, gentle reader, am I become J. Alfred Prufrock: do I dare not eat a peach? Should I dare peak out from behind the mask of “chutney,” or would you dread yet another blog about me, myself, and I?
Is Prufrock’s fear the same as your reservations? Can you draw the line between thought and personal disclosure as neatly as that?
I had a personal blog; only a few people had the URL, and even then it was password protected. After a while, I began writing about the same stuff I write about in public. A bit after that I just dropped the personal one.
Your milage may vary, of course. But there’s only one way to find out…
You should dare.
Hmm… how about halfway between theological abstraction and self-revelation? If something like the “personal essay” starts to emerge, all the better! If something like a journal starts to emerge, ack. “Life passed through the fire of thought” sounds good to me.
Did you know that each chapter of “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie is characterized as a different jar of chutney? That’s what your pseudonym always makes me think of. I think you should keep it, even if you do step out from behind the irony every now and then.