The mystery of the vanishing blogger
“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man [sic.]. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition” (Rod Serling 1959)
There once was a man who later in life began blogging. And he was at least two decades late in joining the world of blogging too. But for him it began in the years after the world changed following a pandemic. During a period of local lockdown, previous pursuits and perspectives were curtailed, and he increasingly looked to memories of his travels. Dining in became the new dining out, but with added value and imagination. The world of pubs was mostly in the past, with the recognition that his domestic surroundings were generally more comfortable. It is said that over time he disappeared into his own blogs, into that occult [hidden] twilight world of psychogeography. He was never quite sure if his horizons were expanding or shrinking.
He vividly recalled places he had visited, many only once, but enough to experience and enjoy them again and again in his mind. Bhutan, Canada, France, Germany, India, Jordan, Madeira, Nepal, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore and Switzerland were now revisited in this most environmentally sustainable form of tourism, without ever leaving the front door. He remembered a sad 1960s TV sitcom in which circumstances forced the protagonists to take a pretend holiday at home behind closed curtains, even arranging for postcards to be sent so they didn't lose face amongst their similarly aspirational peers. It may have been Sykes, or that painfully endured, and embarrassingly middle class, Terry and June, but here his memory failed him. He was rather glad, and not sad.
He also explored lands that he would probably never visit, but thanks to the internet, thanks to ‘world music’, thanks to the diversity and availability of global cuisine ingredients, was also able to ‘experience’ Salsa Tuco in Argentina, Son in Cuba, Wat stew in Ethiopia, throat singing by The Hu in Mongolia and momos in Tibet. For him, food was the music of travel, while music was the food of memories. Thanks to Internationalist media he gained a little insight into the lives of the local people, and was happier to do so without thrusting the tourist lens in their faces.
His blog posts went forth and multiplied to the extent that he began to wonder if it was Senile Hypergraphia, a late onset obsession akin to Diogenes Syndrome; a compulsion to write words rather than collect stuff: CDs, books, instruments, scraps of paper, balls of string and all that sort of thing. Two close friends soon put him right. No, the blogs had now taken on a life of their own. A retirement project. Yes, he still has friends, mysteriously.
He had begun the process by throwing random words into an ever increasing document file. Efficient file management was never his forté. Odd words, themes, grumbles, irritations, inspirations and idées fixes that popped into awareness at all hours and any hour all went into the file. Tony Buzan in the 1970s would have clustered these thoughts into ‘mind maps’. The word ‘brainstorming’ has fallen from favour thankfully, thanks to its neuropathological connotations.
Over months, weeks, days and sometimes just a few hours, the ideas congealed, coalesced into something more cogent. The large draft file gave rise to offspring, more detailed documents distilled according to the man’s interests and obsessions: entitlement, environment, ethnicity, identity, internationalism, language, nationhood, panpsychism, social class, socialism and more.
He wrote for family and friends, but mostly for his own entertainment. Sometimes soon, sometimes later, the distillates were broadcast into social media. Occasionally they were read by others. Alone for a week, he was on the point of becoming the ‘bloke that became a blog’. His partner (he still has a partner, mysteriously), who had been involved in family support elsewhere, arrived home just in the nick of time. She extended her hand and pulled him back into that other reality. “Where shall we go for dinner?” she asked, knowingly. “How about Havana?”
LINKS
Twilight Zone Introduction (csuohio.edu)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
https://youtu.be/5munLxZoRQM?si=el-qw0671_bcbTkI
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I look forward to your comments. Also it would be nice to know where you are in the world. Thanks for reading.