Blogs are not usually things that
interest me; many are just about the creator’s reviews of book, songs, and
movies, about the events he is trying to promote, or random tidbits he finds
interesting but doesn’t describe enough to hold my attention, but Dani
Shapiro’s blog is different. She is a
writer, an actual author of novels and short stories, who has been featured
everywhere from shows such as Oprah! to
another blog on this list, called “The Millions,” and I find her work very
interesting.
Dani’s blog consists of many
different pages: the home page, advertising her most popular books, interviews,
and upcoming appearance; the traditional blog page where she keeps us up to
date with her posts (mainly essays); a list of the books she has written;
upcoming appearances; recordings (visual, audio, and written) of the interviews
she has done; contact and bibliographical information; a schedule of writing
workshops given by her; and my personal favorite, her written works. She wrote one particular story, “The Me My
Child Mustn’t Know,” that really moved me.
It starts out with her son wanting to listen to NPR in the car, but she,
usually grateful of the fact that they share a liking for the same radio
stations, doesn’t want to listen to it that particular day. That day, a reading of one of her older
books, which she wrote in response to being in a car accident, dropping out of
college with an alcohol and drug addiction, and having an affair with a married
man, will be on NPR, and she does not want him to hear it. Dani doesn’t want her son to know about her
life before him and all the mistakes she has made; she does not want to give
him the opportunity to judge her, but more importantly, she does not want the
opportunity to judge herself for being a reckless mother.
Having no children of my own, I
couldn’t identify so much with this piece, but I could definitely understand
where she is coming from. You may have
completely changed since having children, but the past will always be there,
and no matter who a person is, it can make them be seen in a different
light. It reminds me of a story I heard
about Madonna and how she wouldn’t let her kids watch television until a
certain age for fear that they would see her as the vivacious singer she once
was, the life she led away from and previous to her family. She, too, was worried about what her children
would think of her, and how she would think of herself knowing about their
awareness.
In addition to the depth, it is
also the first person of the story—of all the stories she writes, really—that
attracts my attention. I feel like I
have a more personal connection to writers who write in the first person, like
I am hearing their thoughts and recollections first-hand and not interpreted by
someone else. Sure, many of the other
blogs were written in first person, but they were more factual, a lot more
about how “this is happening on this date” and “come to this to see my version
of this,” which can be good to know, but not as interesting to me.
I like the interviews and brief
reviews of her books that are on the blog as well because it shows me how far
she has come in her writing, and by me being able to explore her very personal
blog, I feel like I know and am proud of her.
I know it’s a strange thing to feel, but the personality and
personableness (Is that a word? If not,
I’m making it up.) make it so. They
themselves are also interesting to see/hear/read, to see if the writer Dani is
as similar to the Dani written about as you would think.
I chose this blog to write about
and recommend for others to read because this is what I strive to make my own
blog like. Obviously, I don’t have the
appearance, interviews, book lists, and workshops that I am teaching (unless I
am secretly a world-famous author leading a double life), but I try to make my
posts meaningful, about my thoughts on a particular subject or goings-on in my
life, and not just about objective thoughts on an objective event that is going
on. To me, that is what makes for an
interesting read.
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