Boswell on blogging

by matt

Every month or so, someone deems it necessary to announce the death of blogging. ‘The latest internet fad is over,’ they say, ‘isn’t it sad to see these fools persist past their sell-by date?’ Every time I read one of these essays, I can’t help but think of something James Boswell wrote back in the 18th century:

I read this evening some part of Voltaire’s History of the War in
1741, and of Lord Kames against Hereditary Indefeasible Right. This is
a very slight circumstance, with which I should not trouble my reader,
but for the sake of observing, that every man should keep minutes of
whatever he reads. Every circumstance of his studies should be
recorded; what books he has consulted; how much of them he has read;
at what times; how often the same authors; and what opinions he formed
of them, at different periods of his life. Such an account would much
illustrate the history of his mind.

-J.B., Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

Call it blogging or call it something else (in fact, something else is preferable because ‘blogging’ is such an ugly word), but these analyses exist and will continue to exist independent of the contemporary fashion.

If Boswell had a blog, I would have bookmarked it.