When I first made a website I didn't have a plan for what I was going to do with it, but I've slowly been convinced (in large part by a great post a friend made) that I should add a sort of blog here! Partly in a share-maybe-interesting-thoughts-with-friends-way, but also in a codify specific feelings in words way. It's been a while since I was able to keep up consistently journaling, and I think it's good to just put thoughts into words, especially arounnd books or other media I've just finished. I worry that memories of these experiences fade too quickly, but maybe condensing these thoughts into something meant to be read, especially by future me, will make them last longer. I'm not sure what I'll write or how often, since I think I'll need to get into the habit before I can rely on inspiration to find topics, but time will tell.
The urge to review first came up when I read the Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance) this last week and was left with a very strong but indescribable feeling I wanted to put into words and share with people. It grew listening to two of my friends getting really excited about things they enjoy, and wanting to be able to explain why I liked the things I do as well as they did. I don't intend to review in a judgement of quality sense, just more of a reflection on why I liked something. A big inspiration in that regard for me is Jacob Geller, a video essayist who makes videos about things he likes (mostly games, some books/movies/albums) and talks about them in a very compelling way. I've been convinced by him to try out a lot of things I've enjoyed, (Disco Elysium, Blame!, RRR, The Beths, for a nice spread of mediums). His videos have a sense of pure enjoyment and appreciation of good things that have changed how I interact with all sorts of media, and would love to replicate. I'll talk about this feeling more in a future blog post; I'm trying to keep this short to overcome the hurdle of posting my first thing.
Who knows, maybe this practice will get me to start writing my own things! I've always wanted to write my own science fiction stories, but never devoted time to thinking about ideas or practicing writing enough to get close, and hopefully this will do both of them (again, Catastrophe is a bit of an inspiration, read their stories!). I hope you enjoy reading all these things of course, and a big part especially of the reviews will be talking about things I like to my friends and others who don't know them. I've been told that positive feedback is a huge motivator for this too, so let me know if there's been anything you particularly liked.
For the blog, I have no idea what I'm doing first, or whether I'll try and write something for everything I read or only the very significant ones, but I have a short list of things I've really been having a great time with I want to finish or re-explore to write up something about, if I think they're worth it:
If I have to start with something I might as well start with something I know well. I don't expect my writing to be any good for now, but all it needs is to to get the point across, whatever my point may be. A the very least there'll be a reason for everything I write, and I'll improve with time.
Enjoy yourselves!