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Blogger Continuation

I am smitten (fine, while I’ll admit that I was looking for a reason to use the word “smitten” this morning, I actually am a little in love with this book) with Matthew Quick’s book, Every Exquisite Thing.  There have been three times (so far) that I’ve underlined something, wanting to discuss it with another person.  Which is why I’m dumping it on you.

Welcome to my own private book club.

And, no, you don’t have to have read the book to participate.  This first thought ties into reading blogs, and since you are currently reading a blog post, I’m going to assume you may have some thoughts on this.

Shall we begin?

The main character — Nanette — is having coffee with the author of her favourite book.  She wants to know what happens with the main character in his book (yes, it’s a book inside a book), and the author admits that he doesn’t know what happens to this person he created because the story is over even if the character technically (at least, the reader assumes) lives on. This part of the conversation begins on page 17:

“See that nice woman who served us our coffee?”

I looked back over my shoulder at the tall cashier with the brown ponytail and the permanent smile on her face, and I nodded.

“Her name is Ruth,” Booker said. “Ever see her before?”

Kids my age never came into this coffee shop, so I said, “No.”

“Maybe you won’t ever see her again.”

“So?”

“You only got to see five minutes of Ruth’s story. And that’s just the way it is. But Ruth, well, she goes on now whether you’re looking or not. She does all sorts of things that some people see and some don’t. But your version of Ruth’s story will be the five minutes you spent buying coffee from her. That’s just the way it is.”

In other words, we jump into a story, we remain with the character/person for a little bit, and then we jump out, each continuing but not knowing anything more about the other person.

We accept that reality in life; why aren’t we satisfied with the idea that stories end when it comes to books?  Why do we keep imagining the characters continuing, either producing fan fiction, or in some cases, books like The Cursed Child?

So, yes, I have those questions but it made me think about returning to old posts on my blog and looking at the comment section.  So many people there; some of them prolific bloggers several years ago, now somewhere else, their story continuing without my knowledge.  Some of them were people I corresponded with weekly.  Saw face-to-face when we were in the same space.

And now our stories have drifted apart because they stopped telling theirs on their blog.  Maybe they still read over here but have stopped commenting.  Maybe we’re still connected on other forms of social media so I get glimpses into their story, but more often than not, they’ve disappeared from my world even though they continue to exist in their own world.

There are stories I miss a lot because I liked the main character: the blogger.  I’m sure you miss them, too, since we all read the same people.  And it is strange to think that one day I will become like those characters and drift away because I stop writing my story.  (I have no plans on this front; I’m just stating this because it’s a likely scenario at some point in the distant future.)

Do you miss old bloggers?  Do you miss knowing the continuation of their story?

12 comments

1 nicoleandmaggie { 04.26.17 at 9:07 am }

When flipping through old posts I also often wonder what’s going on with some folks who used to be regulars. Jacq, the single mom who only worked as an accountant for large sums of money when she felt like it. No trust fund, who had the best 30 days to fix your finances on the internet (which I wish I’d stolen before she let her domain lapse instead of posting her annual update this year). Molly on Money who lived a funky life with her husband and built a Yurt from scratch. Lindy Mint who had a great financial blog that she sold. And so on. I do wonder how their stories have progressed. Heck, First Gen American still comments on our blog but I really want to know how her house renovations are going and how Babci is doing as she ages and so on, but she no longer updates on her own blog.

As with fictional characters, I can imagine the best possible happily ever afters for people whose lives no longer intersect with mine.

2 Turia { 04.26.17 at 9:20 am }

Many, if not most, of the women who started treatments at around the same time as I did are no longer blogging (or at least those whom I read on a regular basis have gone quiet). I miss their blogs. I’m friends with some of them on fakebook but it’s not the same.

3 Noemi { 04.26.17 at 9:36 am }

I really miss bloggers who have stopped writing. I’ve written about that before on my blog. It makes me sad to think that we’all never hear from them again. I’m also not on any other forms of social media, so once a blogger stops writing in their space, I have no other connection to them.

4 Jenn P { 04.26.17 at 10:29 am }

I often think about the stories of people I used to know or had a connection with in passing and I think a lot about various bloggers I used to follow or who no longer blog. I am glad I am not alone! I think I have an easier time with book characters and stories because I know they aren’t real and get immersed in the next book. I have never been curious enough to read fan fiction and haven’t read the Cursed Child despite being a big fan of Harry potter.

5 Working mom of 2 { 04.26.17 at 10:55 am }

Well, I don’t blog. But I do miss people I met on message boards when I was in the trenches, specifically a group that was going to the same far away clinic and also had success. People stopped going to that message board. Some of them had blogs but those have all died off. So yeah, I wonder and want to know how everyone is.

6 Click { 04.26.17 at 1:12 pm }

In real life it bugs me that I don’t know the stories of everyone around me.

I remember once seeing a guy at Glasgow Central train station wearing a tweed jacket (the kind with the elbow patches), light brown trousers and carrying a folder that had ‘birth certificate’ on it. He ended up running across to one of the platforms and to this day I wonder who he was and what he was doing. Was he a new father with his child’s birth certificate? Was he some sort of researcher and it was the birth certificate of the person he was investigating? Was he going for an interview somewhere and had to bring his birth certificate along with other paperwork? Was it just a random old folder that had nothing to do with what was inside it? And why was he running? To catch the train, obviously, but why that one? What would happen if he missed it? So many questions.

I’ve actually considered writing him into a story on more than one occasion, purely so I can find out what he was up to.

And when I end a story, I do usually know what happens afterwards. It might not be pertinent to the actual story, but I usually have some idea of what comes next for my main characters. I can’t help but create their whole lives.

Cait @ Click’s Clan

7 torthúil { 04.26.17 at 1:47 pm }

Yes, I do. Although I respect people’s reasons for not continuing, and I will at some point be the person who doesn’t continue (my current plan is to take torthúil offline when my daughter learns to read.) I assume I’ll continue writing in some form, but I don’t know what it will be.

8 loribeth { 04.26.17 at 2:27 pm }

Yes, all the time! Some people announce that they’re not blogging anymore, some get their baby & kind of drift away (you know they’re busy), but some just drop off the face of the earth & I wonder what happened — did they get pregnant? Did they get bad news? Whatever happened, are they living a happy life now?

This is very timely, because I was just doing a bit of a cleanup on the blogrolls of my blog — adding some new blogs that I follow on my reader but hadn’t added to my blog, and deleting some links that no longer exist or were long ago taken offline by the owner. Wondering whatever happened to these people. I still have a ton of blogs on my list that haven’t been updated in years, but I hate to delete them just in case an update pops up. It has happened occasionally!

9 loribeth { 04.26.17 at 2:29 pm }

(I just realized that somehow my name in the comment above links to one of Brooke’s posts, which I added to the Second Helpings list on last week’s Friday Roundup post… not sure how that happened??)

10 Sharon { 04.26.17 at 7:24 pm }

Oh yes, I have often wondered about many of the bloggers I used to read and correspond with regularly, and I have even missed the writing of bloggers with whom I did not have a personal connection. But then again, I no longer blog myself, so there’s that.

11 Counting Pink Lines { 04.26.17 at 8:23 pm }

Yep! Especially since I joined this community only a year ago, I’m very curious about what happened to them and how things turned out.

12 suzannacatherine { 04.27.17 at 6:08 am }

Yes! I do wonder where they are now. I miss the disappeared bloggers, many of whom I have considered as favorite authors. I long to know the rest of the story.

I’ve also had a handful of favorite bloggers migrate from blogging to other forms of connecting with their followers. I’m thrilled when I find them on Twitter and/or Instagram (so many wonderful pictures!), but
it really isn’t the same.

I don’t have a blog myself, but I do feel a sort of understanding of how it could feel overwhelming to a new parent, etc. Time is precious and we all make choices of how to use our time wisely. Even saying that and understanding some of the reasons, doesn’t fill that space where the favorite blogger and the followers connected.

It’s almost like a little death.

(c) 2006 Melissa S. Ford
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