Essays
29/04/14 05:20
I sometimes refer to myself as an essayist, thinking that the word essay comes the closest to describing what I do in my blog. I am sure that some of my pieces come close to editorials and others are commentary. Still others are theological reflections and more than a few are sermons, but in general, the style of writing that I do fits into the category of essay. Sometimes you will hear of Michel de Montaigne as the inventor of the genre of the essay. I doubt if any one individual invented a form of writing, but it is clear that the French Renaissance writer contributed greatly to the popularity of the essay as a literary genre. What Montaigne did so well in his writing was to merge serious intellectual exercises with casual anecdotes and autobiographical details.
These days, Montaigne is known mostly as an author, most notably for his massive volume, “Essais.” During his lifetime, he was known as a statesman. Literary critics of his time found his digressions into anecdotes and personal reflections as deviations from proper literary style. There are critics to this day who would agree that an essay is not truly a proper form of writing.
I am not practiced in many other forms of writing. I, of course, wrote academic papers during my education and even succeeded in publishing a few academic articles in journals. I have written quite a bit of educational resources or curricula to precise specifications set by the editors and developers of the resources. I’ve started a few novels, but never finished one. I’ve written a few professional documents, but most remain unpublished. The thing I do is write essays.
The word essay comes from the french. It means “to try.” In my thinking, all of my essays are attempts or trials. I am aiming at a connection between intellectual knowledge and personal story-telling. That point of connection is, it seems, a bit of a balancing act and I have a tendency to write many essays that lean one direction or another. So thinking of my offerings as trials suits me well. Each morning I get up and I write and I put forth a trial. My blogs are not finished products. They are rarely finished ideas. They are a way of recording what I am thinking at the time and are a part of the process of forming ideas.
Frequently I return to topics that I have previously visited. I am occasionally asked how I come up with the topics for my essays, and I am not completely sure. Most of the time they are at least partially inspired by the books I am reading. Sometimes they are inspired by the news headlines that I scan before writing each morning. Other times they are inspired by the experiences of the previous day. Among the most popular of my topics for my readers are descriptions of paddling adventures. Perhaps I am better at the storytelling side of the balance than the intellectual ideas. Today’s topic came directly from one of the books I am currently reading. Jennifer Michael Hecht’s “Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It,” has a chapter about the renaissance and the rise of modernism. The chapter focuses on many writers, most notably Shakespeare, but has a couple of pages of reflection on the writings of Montaigne. In her introduction to Montaigne, she refers to him as the inventor of the essay and I reacted to reading it by thinking, “no one invented the essay and there were essays around before Montaigne.” The idea was still stirring in my mind this morning as I gazed out at the falling snow, a fitting response to yesterday’s blog. The news headlines didn’t particularly give rise to a blog topic, so I got to thinking about Montaigne. I first read Montaigne in a college French class. The essays were short enough for a relatively elementary reader and contained ideas worth discussing. I was enamored with philosophy at the time and Montaigne’s style of blending serious philosophical thought with personal experiences resonated with me.
I haven’t come close to Montagne’s mastery of the genre. It seems unlikely that I will. But then I don’t write to become like someone else. I don’t write to master the genre. I write because it seems useful for me to get some of the ideas dancing around in my mind out and express them in some form. There was a time when I thought that I might invest the time to go back through my blogs, select the best ones, edit them and turn them into a book. I suspect that will never happen. It requires a discipline and a focus that I presently lack. I suppose it could be a retirement project, but I doubt that I will ever run out of new ideas and new shapes for the thoughts that come to my mind. A blog seems to be a reasonable form for my ideas. I toss them out, a few people read them, and then we go on to the next one. Some folks read my blogs nearly every day. Some folks let several of them go by and then read them in batches. Some folks stop by and read one or tow on occasion. My audience is considerably smaller than would ber practical for a printed book.And that is fine with me. It seems to be a useful exercise to write even if no one reads what I write. I publish as a blog because it is inexpensive and easy and allows a few folks to read and react to my ideas. Occasionally my blogs provide topics for conversation with family and friends. They also provide the seeds of ideas for sermons and other expressions of my thinking.
So, if you’ve followed this blog post this far, please think of my entries as essays in the sense of trials or attempts. They aren’t finished ideas, but rather trial balloons that I’m floating out. Not every idea is a good one. Not every blog is a hit. But I’ll keep trying. It seems like a worthy investment of time.
These days, Montaigne is known mostly as an author, most notably for his massive volume, “Essais.” During his lifetime, he was known as a statesman. Literary critics of his time found his digressions into anecdotes and personal reflections as deviations from proper literary style. There are critics to this day who would agree that an essay is not truly a proper form of writing.
I am not practiced in many other forms of writing. I, of course, wrote academic papers during my education and even succeeded in publishing a few academic articles in journals. I have written quite a bit of educational resources or curricula to precise specifications set by the editors and developers of the resources. I’ve started a few novels, but never finished one. I’ve written a few professional documents, but most remain unpublished. The thing I do is write essays.
The word essay comes from the french. It means “to try.” In my thinking, all of my essays are attempts or trials. I am aiming at a connection between intellectual knowledge and personal story-telling. That point of connection is, it seems, a bit of a balancing act and I have a tendency to write many essays that lean one direction or another. So thinking of my offerings as trials suits me well. Each morning I get up and I write and I put forth a trial. My blogs are not finished products. They are rarely finished ideas. They are a way of recording what I am thinking at the time and are a part of the process of forming ideas.
Frequently I return to topics that I have previously visited. I am occasionally asked how I come up with the topics for my essays, and I am not completely sure. Most of the time they are at least partially inspired by the books I am reading. Sometimes they are inspired by the news headlines that I scan before writing each morning. Other times they are inspired by the experiences of the previous day. Among the most popular of my topics for my readers are descriptions of paddling adventures. Perhaps I am better at the storytelling side of the balance than the intellectual ideas. Today’s topic came directly from one of the books I am currently reading. Jennifer Michael Hecht’s “Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It,” has a chapter about the renaissance and the rise of modernism. The chapter focuses on many writers, most notably Shakespeare, but has a couple of pages of reflection on the writings of Montaigne. In her introduction to Montaigne, she refers to him as the inventor of the essay and I reacted to reading it by thinking, “no one invented the essay and there were essays around before Montaigne.” The idea was still stirring in my mind this morning as I gazed out at the falling snow, a fitting response to yesterday’s blog. The news headlines didn’t particularly give rise to a blog topic, so I got to thinking about Montaigne. I first read Montaigne in a college French class. The essays were short enough for a relatively elementary reader and contained ideas worth discussing. I was enamored with philosophy at the time and Montaigne’s style of blending serious philosophical thought with personal experiences resonated with me.
I haven’t come close to Montagne’s mastery of the genre. It seems unlikely that I will. But then I don’t write to become like someone else. I don’t write to master the genre. I write because it seems useful for me to get some of the ideas dancing around in my mind out and express them in some form. There was a time when I thought that I might invest the time to go back through my blogs, select the best ones, edit them and turn them into a book. I suspect that will never happen. It requires a discipline and a focus that I presently lack. I suppose it could be a retirement project, but I doubt that I will ever run out of new ideas and new shapes for the thoughts that come to my mind. A blog seems to be a reasonable form for my ideas. I toss them out, a few people read them, and then we go on to the next one. Some folks read my blogs nearly every day. Some folks let several of them go by and then read them in batches. Some folks stop by and read one or tow on occasion. My audience is considerably smaller than would ber practical for a printed book.And that is fine with me. It seems to be a useful exercise to write even if no one reads what I write. I publish as a blog because it is inexpensive and easy and allows a few folks to read and react to my ideas. Occasionally my blogs provide topics for conversation with family and friends. They also provide the seeds of ideas for sermons and other expressions of my thinking.
So, if you’ve followed this blog post this far, please think of my entries as essays in the sense of trials or attempts. They aren’t finished ideas, but rather trial balloons that I’m floating out. Not every idea is a good one. Not every blog is a hit. But I’ll keep trying. It seems like a worthy investment of time.