This is a side effect of personal publishing. Individual people, who have previously been consumers of things, are now learning what it means to be producers of things.
It’s the process of learning about that mysterious connection between an artist and his art. His art comes from him, but is not him, although it contains a part of him.
Yet people love the art and not the artist. They pay millions of dollars for the painting, even when it’s apparent to all who know him that the artist is a bum and a skeeze.
But he’s a great artist.
If you want people to love you, don’t try and blog your way to it.
I’m reading a very interesting (and quite scary) book on narcissism – “The Narcissism Epidemic” – discussing how and why narcissism is on the rise in our culture. Faced with an audience of narcissists it is all “ME ME ME”.
It’s the shallow nature of online relationship.
Easy come, easy go.
On the other hand someone said to me, “I’ve been reading your blog, and not just because I like you, but because I enjoy your writing.”
And I was chuffed.
Seth is primarily talking about the fairly narrow realm of business communications, but it’s a publishing lesson.
You will fail *as a publisher* (not as a person, not as a friend) if what you publish is not compelling.
Of course we like it when people like our stuff. But it’s about the stuff.
There’s a limited amount of real relationship that can be built in a producer/consumer or a publisher/reader setting.
A blog is a great publishing and marketing medium, but it’s not necessarily a great relational one.
A superb depiction of Narcissism growing, flowering and bearing it’s bitter fruit is Charles Williams “Descent Into Hell”
Well, *I* think this whole narcissism thing is overblown.