What’s the difference between a blog posting and a personal essay? As I review a series of essays for my creative non-fiction class at UBC, this question comes to mind. I review the points provided in our course pack by our ever-thorough (and enthusiastic) instructor Andreas Schroeder and one line about essays stands out: “it is mostly exploratory, giving itself time to peruse, analyze, speculate or marvel.” This sentence spring-boards into a theory.
Essays take up time whereas blog postings take up (cyber)space. This is a simple bifurcation but valid. How many people gaze up from computer screens with pensive expressions? While surfing the web you move from place to place, from text to video, and time is usually measured in the seconds you wait for something to load. In essays there is time to slowly and sensuously wrap your head around a thought. Time is of the essence.
I also consider how a personal essay is Socratic in its questioning approach whereas a blog posting is more declarative. Usually, people are getting some grief off their chest or promulgating some position or stance. There are a dizzying number of great blogs but on the other end of the spectrum you have people shouting: look at me! At the end of the day, it’s easier to shout a sentence than a question. (Try to imagine a crowd chanting a thoughtful question.)
I file my fingers through all the readings that Andreas has given up. One of the best essays in this superb collection in front of me is Cristina Nehring’s Our Essays, Ourselves, a piece of writing that shimmers in its rhythms of insight. What I also enjoy is the succinct analysis of the history and import of essays. We are taken from Seneca, the founder of the essay form, to Lee Gutkind, a contemporary proselyte of creative nonfiction and founder of the literary journal Creative Non-Fiction (which currently is running a competition on essays about animals with a deadline of April 2nd).
If this were an essay I’d wrap all this up with some insight into UBC’s remarkable MFA program, a reference to a cat I met yesterday on my walk home and the view I have as I type this on my iPhone as I look up through the diamond shaped UBC library window and wince at a fissure of brightness breaking through the clouds in the sky.
But this is just a blog posting and you have other places to go.