David has turned his blog posts into a book. These are posts from the early days when bloggers still talked to each other. Blogging still rocks but the earth has expanded and the distances are great. David has linked to long forgotten but substantial posts. Does this indicate a real possibility of limited permanence in blogging over books that are not e-transmitted?
Perhaps deep speaks to deep still. I see that Tim Bulkley has also noted the arrival of this e-note. His title the third preposition reminds me of both the scandal of particularity in The Third Peacock and the flexibility of prepositions.
As I have noted before, there are bloggers that I miss greatly whose blogs have been removed or privatized. There are some still around that I don't find time to read. But what will happen to those links in the long run? How long will my company put up with the megabytes of memory I have used after my retirement? How long will Picasa and Google and Blogger keep the old syndications? And I am sure that Facebook and Twitter are even less amenable to research - unless you like unraveling bits and pieces of old threads from a Geniza.
* (ITD Internet-transmitted-disease)
Because the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive is at best a very partial answer. Perhaps some enterprising company could offer post mortem protection of URLs and content. Storage is now so cheap, and data too, that old blogs would not need a big endowment to pay the costs and a modest profit. One could even make it advertising funded if necessary...
ReplyDeleteIt is quite astonishing how many angels can dance on a bit of sand aka silicon. I have sometimes thought of this as part of Jacob's blessing to his sons Zebulun and Issachar - the treasures hidden in the sands Deut 33:19.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I am working towards a 'book' on the psalms - and everything else I have written will be considered part of the compost that allowed the writing to emerge. But we'll have to wait and see how this project ends. I hope to find a dead-tree publisher - or at least one who can produce something to be held in the hand on demand.
I do know how demanding this is. So it may turn out to have been useful mostly to me.
Good to hear from you and thanks for the continuation of the comments of old by posting on David's book - else I would not have looked again since John had this warning about a virus.
Thanks for this link, Bob. I missed it somehow. I feel your nostalgia but also a sense of rebirth. I just saw the ElShaddai Edwards is making a comeback. Perhaps the time has now come!
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