Dipping one's toe in...

So, why create a Blog? - Well, everybody else seems to be doing it, although as everyone else seems to be drinking alcopops, reading the Daily Mail and watching Strictly Come Dancing this is hardly a convincing justification.

To see how it is done? Well, yes, there is a certain amount of existential curiousity about this new cultural phenomenon. Will the prospect of sharing my thoughts with the whole of hyperspace make me reappraise my place within modern society? Probably not. Will the cut and thrust of cultural debate give substance to my currently-somewhat-etioliated intellectual life? Well, maybe - although the probability of anyone else stumbling across my ramblings and then having something worthwhile to say about them is one in a number that is very large and growing.

To sharpen my writing skills? Well, possibly. Having left tertiary education 20 years ago with a degree that was almost entirely due to essay-writing skills, I have spent the years since then in an office composing emails and technical documentation. When I have cast a finely-spun sentence with a well-judged bon-mot within, my audience has been, shall we say, unappreciative. But at least I had an audience. In cyberspace, no-one can hear you scream.

To share my thoughts with the world? - Well, yes, as if the world is sitting there holding its breath. But I do read books and go to the theatre and have thoughts and jot them down in a little book that no-one has read and no-one is likely to read, and at least to share these thoughts with the vast audience out there - even if no-one ever reads them - is slightly less onanistic.

So welcome to my world. Herein you shall find my thoughts on books and theatre and the latest exhibitions, with occasional digressions into politics and social issues things which seemed to me to be worth saying. It may be the case that in 20 years time, I will find that my blog is the Omphalos of my existence, my lodestone, my compass. It could also be the case that after the first flush of enthusiasm, I will never write another word and the site will become yet another microscopic piece of flotsam cluttering up the Information Superhighway. We shall see.

Now, does this thing have a spell-checker...? Or a cliche-remover!