The Pit and the Pendulum: Blogging and Popularity

The other day I was rummaging around at home looking for some information and I came across a plastic shopping bag with a small book in it. It was a copy of The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe. I vaguely recall picking it up from a bargain bin in a bookshop sometime back in antiquity. I can't remember why I wanted it at the time so followed my curiosity and read the story. Poe of course is renowned for being macabre, although he also was one of the originators of detective novels and a romantic poet.

The Pit and the Pendulum is the story of a man in a dungeon - a victim of the Inquisition. To cut a short story even shorter, he finds himself tied down with a sharp-bladed pendulum above him swinging lower and lower. This he manages to escape. It was the next part of the story that got my attention. Having escaped the pendulum, he now finds that the four walls of the dungeon are all moving inwards. Which left me wondering if he was the first to come up with this scenario, as I've seen movies where people are trapped in rooms and the walls start moving inwards. But back to the story - the walls are moving inwards so that he is pushed closer and closer to the large pit in the center of the dungeon. He knows that eventually he will have nowhere to go but down into the abyss.

And this led me to think about blogging. In particular this led me to think about pushing back the walls. If you are a blogger then you would have had certain thoughts running through your head when you clicked on "create your own blog", or the equivalent, and came up with your own little piece of cyberspace. Here's some of what was going through my brain. I had been thinking about the Roman Empire in the 1st century. Before you stop reading because you think I've fallen prey to delusions of grandeur (more on that topic later), let me assure you I was thinking about the Roman road system. The Romans built the 1st century equivalent of a highway system throughout the Empire. It meant people could travel faster from one place to another, and therefore news, information and opinion travelled faster too. The Roman roads made it possible to travel to places that a person might previously never travel to. It became not only a faster track for merchants but an information highway and a means of cross-cultural encounters and communication. That was what I was thinking when I started my blog.

Of course having created the blog I then sat looking at an empty page with no idea of what to say. My first post was a poem, I think by Kathleen Raine, because I felt too embarrassed and self-conscious to say, "Hello world". It is also a poem that means a lot to me. Despite my initial floundering I enjoyed the blog - there were no walls. The highways were there and it was interesting finding the different roads. Now here's what I want to get to - no-one much read my blog for months. I didn't mind. I thought it was fun to gather together links to other bloggers and did it because I liked their blogs and wanted to share the links with others. Trust me, I was nobody. No-one emailed asking me to link them. No-one called me prominent or influential or anything like that. The joy of the lone traveller out on the highway who stops here and there to talk to small groups of other travellers - that was me.

Here's my unconfessed secret - I'm still the same. And the wall I want to push back today is the popularity myth. Recently I've seen posts in which the conclusions drawn are that if more than a certain number of people read a blog, or a blog appears in a certain position on a list of blogs, then this is a popular blog and this is not good. Ive even seen comments saying that these popular bloggers are like Pharisees because they are prominent and therefore are not humble. Well it's pointless to set about trying to prove one's humility - proving one's humilty is a contradiction in terms. So let me push back that wall first. Guess what? I'm not humble enough. I'm not loving enough either. I'll go the whole hog - I'm woefully imperfect.

Now to the popularity wall. It makes sense that the more some-one travels up and down certain roads the more people they are going to encounter. Over time the number of people reading a blog grows. I have racked my brains and cannot see anything wrong with that. How does this make some-one a Pharisee? Or more to the point - how does some-one else even know my motives, intentions, and reasons for writing a blog? Or anyone's motives, intentions, and reasons? Anyone claiming to be a mind reader has definitely not read my mind correctly on this one. As for the number of readers - a drop in the bucket, if that, when one considers that millions of people travel the internet everyday. Compared to some of my favourite blogs I am teeny potatoes.

Here's an example which makes a good general point. There's a man who is the author of a book which is a best seller. He is popular with millions of people worldwide and considered an authority on religious matters and Christianity in particular. There is criticism of those who read his book, particularly those who promote it as the book for the times. There's criticism of people's motives for following his advice too. You would be right in saying that just as he has numerous people who seem to hang on his every word, he has also amassed a significant number of critics. In fact some people don't like him purely because he is so popular. Do you know who he is? Does his popularity in itself make him a Pharisee?

I am no longer interested in criticism about who I choose to associate with online, or which blogging groups I join. I am not going to wear guilt by association or feel some sort of false guilt because a certain number of people come to read what I write. Believe me - I appreciate anyone reading what I write. I have a blog because I would like people to read what I write. What I would like to say to certain Christian bloggers is that this is not church. As far as I'm concerned bloggers are all just individuals with computers. There is no cyber board of elders and pastors. I read some blogs by pastors and elders that I appreciate very much, and there are some who I think have a lot of wisdom and who have studied formally. What I mean is that there is no group of people running and overseeing a cyber church. Online travelling doesn't replace or substitute offline Christian community. (Just pushed back a third wall). I think there can be a sense of community online between people - but I want to say that as far as I'm concerned that should be enjoyable. Not a guilt-trip about who has more readers or who links to who. As strange as this may sound, there are people who become quite serious about passing judgement on these things.

A large number of readers does not make a blogger more spiritual. A small number of readers is no guarantee of humility - naked ambition can still be a driving force (fourth wall). So I wanted to push back some walls here and clear the highway again. Let me add that for many of you this is probably not news. I expect you have been happily traversing the highway unaware of any moving walls or pitfalls. I however have been aware, and have felt a pressure from some quarters. And now I am feeling a whole lot better. Let's just read who we enjoy reading - be it because we feel inspired, like being challenged, or simply just like the person's style. Being all things to all does not mean being controlled or manipulated. It means following the highway as the Spirit leads, and having joy in the journey.

I would like to know if anyone can guess who the popular author is that I referred to. Oh - and the man in The Pit and the Pendulum is rescued from the Inquisition. I love that. And... this post is not addressing those of us who occasionally feel a little envious but get over it. I'm talking about more persistent stuff.

Update: The answer to the question is here in Part 2