I was checking out a new blog today, skimming some of the posts to see if I wanted to make it part of my daily diet of blogging, and it occurred to me: I was annoyed by the fact that I couldn’t use the keyboard shortcuts in Google Reader to skip to the next post.

I need to get off the internet, I think.

When I watch a really good movie or read a really good book, my mind explodes, branching out in a million different directions, testing, weighing, reevaluating, touching up my worldview, a daub of color here, more shading there. I’ve been introduced to a whole new experience, an event which if particularly successful ends in the total obliviation of ganglion nerve clusters.

Now that I’m an adult, I find myself truly immersed in the world of a novel or in movie much less than I was when I was younger. For a brief time I thought that the passing of years had dulled my ability to truly get lost in a work of art. But the real reason is that I find myself truly immersed in prayer to a degree much greater than in aesthetics alone.

Aesthetics, in their own, transcendent way, point to God. God alone fulfills, sustains. Mere movies, twee tomes, are like an hors d’ouevres. One taste that gratifies for an instant, and foreshadows the great meal to come.

Without that foretaste, would anyone look forward to the meal?

In this space I will from time to time review both literature and cinema. Not because I have a high opinion of my opinion, nor because the world particularly needs another review, but because that’s the most painless way for me to learn about the world: exploration through vicarious experience. I want to share that exploration with those around me. If one other person connects, awesome. If not, well, I’ll have learned how to describe the explosions in my brain. Which is worth something, I hope.

Postscriptum: I’m not usually this pretentious.

Writer’s block is an awful lot like going back to a well that you’ve drawing water from for years and, hey, the well’s empty. What gives? Didn’t I just fill this thing? Oh well, I’ll just fill you up with some water from the… damn. That won’t work.

Maybe YELLING INTO THE WELL will make a difference.

One way to get a personal site going is to install some blog software, rather than keep fiddling (or ignoring) the home-brew content management system. I would prefer coding my own software, because it would do everything I’ve dreamed of, but since it only exists in an extreme beta form, and is unlikely to go anywhere in the near future, I’ll stick to wordpress.