Dooce Has Nothing on Blethic

A friend--who knew of what he spoke, having international success as a film-maker and visual artist--once asked the Matron which she would rather have, money or fame? Couldn't be both, as this was a question of the rorschach nature.

She didn't miss a beat: "Fame!"

He said: "Aha! Then you're the real artist. You want your work out there. You want readers."

Mrs. G hit this shiny nail on the head, here.

This is why the Matron blogs, too. Indeed, at this very moment, she is standing on stage, throwing you all kisses. Comments on the dexterity of her prose make her heart go pitter-patter. Knees weak and eyes roll, all that.

The rest of Mrs. G's musings -- particularly on how the popular don't play well with others -- echoes much of the Matron's own sentiments about the ins and outs of this online writing game.

Heather Armstrong does not read this blog--or yours, for that matter.

Dooce isn't the place you pull up a ratty lawn chair and kvetch about the husband. No, Heather Armstrong's blog is a corporation (one that rolls in over 40K a month!). Dooce is industrial strength stuff: codified, in the dictionary.

Now, the Matron enjoys Dooce. Much like she enjoys Vanity Fair or visits Salon. This is different than tooling through the day to day doings of Green Girl or Amy the Mom. Not better, not worse, just different. Dooce is serious business and feels, to this reader, every bit as studied and structured as the introduction of any new product on the market -- only with a blog, product happens nearly every day.

The Matron is using Dooce as an example, but there are plenty of other bloggers who are also one-way destinations. Entities unto themselves.

If thousands of people (instead of numbers stretching toward 200, at the moment) read the Matron's blog, she probably wouldn't be able to stop by and visit everyone, either. But she would want to! (and she might even try)

Perhaps the larger question (because she's an academic, she's sure there is one) is what the goals are? What success is? Why? The Matron prefers reading and writing to direct human contact, so that pretty much sums up her intentions. It's all Flow, darling.

Success is the conversation--from bouncing off Mrs. G to the comments below. Success is pumping out something creative in half an hour, nearly every day. Success is that check for $28 the Matron just got from BlogHer! Success is trying to wipe up the drool and tackling technology: if everyone under thirty lives online, why not give try?

Success? The Matron thinks that would be the codification, the dictionary-ization of her made-up word for blog ethic - blethic, the care and tutelage of one's individual blog. The moral compass, the code. Blethic!

And today's post would be a little riff on that.