On machismo and other censoring forces in the blog

I've talked about censoring forces on the blog before, and here I am again. On the one hand, the blog should be a free medium, bloggers write about anything they want. On the other hand, this blog is mostly being read by a bunch of guys that I know, so there's a strong tendency for a sort of egghead machismo to impose itself, a pressure to write what's pleasing to my audience. Wit, first and foremost. Sardonicism.

But wit and irony, as we all know, is a prime way of distancing onesself from whatever one is dealing with. From James Ellroy to Martin Amis, there's a strong tendency in contemporary literature (and has been for some time) to interpose a strong-voiced narrator between reader and narrative, to wall experience off in affect. Immediacy can also be a fetish, but it can be done well, as Claire Messud has done so stunningly in the first half of her most recent book, The Hunters. (had to get a plug in for Claire, who, full disclosure, is a friend from college)

And of course I can't really blame the blog. I'm talking about myself, really, my blog. In any case, my 15 minutes are up and I don't know where I was going with this. Oh well.