Blog vs. Essay

This may count as a blog but I consider it an essay. Blogs have the potential to be wildly popular while an essay is not burdened with such potential. An “essay” evokes an assignment toiled over at the last minute with the hopes of meeting requirements. A “blog” suggests fun. An “essay” is a composition of thought. A “blog” is a train of one. An “essay” is read by a few select intellectuals. A “blog” is skimmed.

Writing a book of essays is a familiar daydream of mine, though it’s hard to imagine the compounding disinterest of both books and essays in the current attention economy. But the form of the essay is too capacious, too boundless, too considered, for me to consider anything else.