Why I’m Going Back to Blogging
At the demand of precisely nobody, I’m going to start blogging again. Let me explain.
From around 2016 to 2023, I was weirdly productive, and the blogging format was what initially enabled it. I had developed very disciplined writing habits when I ran the Jordan Center Blog. It was easier for me to write posts than to track down potential contributors, and I just really enjoyed the work. Inspired by Elizabeth Sandifer’s Tardis Editorum, which she used to serialize multiple excellent books on the various incarnations of Doctor Who, I decided to give it a try in order to jumpstart Plots against Russia, versions of which I had been working on, at least theoretically, since 2008.
Me, looking in the mirror. Well, a younger, hotter me.
And it worked. I went on to serialize Marvel Comics in the 1970s, Soviet Self-Hatred, and Unstuck in Time. But I also wrote Pussy Riot, Meanwhile in Russia, Russian Culture under Putin, HBO’s The Leftovers, and The Politics of Fantasy without the blog format. This was for a number of reasons, but two of them stand out: first, I don’t think many people were actually reading the blogs, and, more important, I didn’t need the publication schedule to force me to write. Plus I was able to skip around from chapter to chapter, the way normal people do.
Jump ahead to February 2023, when I learned that I was going to be named Vice Chancellor and Vice Provost for Global Programs. For the first sixth months, I was technically the Interim VC/VP, and even though my workload increased significantly, I didn’t really get slammed until the summer. I’m not complaining: I love my job. But back-to-back meetings and nonstop email have, unsurprisingly, cut into my writing time. This wasn’t visible, because I had so much in the pipeline.
But I’m not ecstatic over my current writing situation. I’ve still been writing, but so sporadically that I find myself having to reread what I wrote in order to figure out what I’m doing. All I really want is to just keep these projects alive in my head, and move them forward at whatever pace ends up working.
Here’s where it gets ridiculous: I’ve written pretty significant chunks of three different book projects. This was the sort of thing that used to work really well for me, but now is a challenge. Still, I don’t want to give any of them up. So I’ve decided not to.
The plan is to serialize all three projects on a weekly basis. This isn’t as bad as it sounds, since, again, I have a backlog. And once I have to start writing new stuff rather than cleaning up old stuff, I have no doubt that my pace will fall back significantly. Which, again, is fine. I’ll put the posts up on my blog (eliotborenstein.net) and link to them on Facebook. At this point, all of these projects feel much more raw than their predecessors. If I get feedback, this will be extremely helpful, but I don’t have any illusions about getting a large readership. All I have to do is pretend that I have a readership.
The schedule is as follows:
Mondays: Marvel Comics in the 1980s
Wednesdays: Unidentified Russian Objects: On Soviet Melancholy (the third and final installment in Russia’s Alien Nations, in case anyone besides me is keeping track)
Fridays: Reading the Superhero: Ethics, Crises, and Superboy Punches
If anyone is inclined to read (and even respond to) any of these at any point, I’ll be thrilled. If not, I’ll still be online, writing into the void.
That’s it. I’m already grateful in advance to all my imaginary readers.
See you Monday,
Eliot