Emily and the Blog from Brooklyn

To have a blog has a certain amount of narcissism to it, to a certain degree. It is a way to write, to be published, in a way, to have your voice heard. I do write about myself in a oblique way because I am a private person and I do not want the world to know my business. The other reason is that being in the military there are just things that you don't write about, which are work related. I do admire people who do put themselves "out there", it just isn't for me.

This girl in Brooklyn, Emily, did like 10 Internet pages talking about her life, her blog, and there were a couple of pics of her, tats and all. She is young and attractive (in a artsy, girl from Brooklyn and being an individual way).

The article about Emily and her blog are here, and once at the article, you can see what everybody who reads the NYT have to say, here are some of my favorites...

Comment 46: Not to offend Ms. Emily Gould but we are in the middle of a war, an economic crisis and an election year. This is not the type of article that i expect to see in the front page of the New York Times website.

Comment 37: Emily, you have real talent as a writer but you need to learn to step back from yourself. I recommend you go to Iraq and practice some real journalism. God knows we need more truth tellers in that sorry corner of the world. A mission such as this will not only cleanse your soul of the stench of the shady self indulgent Internet world you are now rightly repudiating, but it may give you the opportunity to use your considerable gifts in the furtherance of a cause greater than yourself.

Comment 7: Dear Ms. Gould: Thanks for exhibiting the empty narcissism of so much blogging. As for "Josh"'s article on you in the NYT Post, all one can say is, what goes around comes around--and the hypocrisy of your talking about it like a "personal betrayal" is either audacious in its flagrant, cynical hypocrisy or depressing in its utter lack of self-awareness. Like your tattoos, I'm fairly sure you'll regret all this by the time you get into your 40s. From now on, I'd urge you to refrain from mutually polluting your private life, and public discourse, with such things.Best regards,

Yikes, that hurts. God bless you Emily and good for you for your courage to bear your soul on line like you do. I have to agree with comment number 7 though, chances are good that may have regrets about your total discourse with your public journal on line. I don't know about your tats though, maybe you have no regrets about those. I respect her being brave enough to just expose herself to the world like that.

I thing that Emily is a very good writer though and I like her own reflections on her blog...

"My blog post was ridiculous and petty and small — and, suddenly, incredibly important. At some point I’d grown accustomed to the idea that there was a public place where I would always be allowed to write, without supervision, about how I felt. Even having to take into account someone else’s feelings about being written about felt like being stifled in some essential way."

"...I wasn’t generously sharing my thoughts; I was compulsively seeking gratification from strangers at the expense of the feelings of someone I actually knew and loved."

I am looking forward to how you answer all of these people who have commented on this article.