UPDATE, 10 January: In the planting below I note that sharp decline in readership recently. Then yesterday turned out to be a day with by far more visits than any in recnt months. Go figure.

I have never read any of Michael Berube’s academic writings (which he describes as “literature and cultural dangeral studies”), but I have enjoyed his terrific gift of writing at Le Blogue Bérubé. Alas, no more; he has decided that the latter interferes with the former (and other pursuits) too much.

He makes some valid points, similar to those I wrestle with from time to time–especially as the count of daily visitors has declined rather sharply in recent months–even as I continue (mostly) to see blogging as beneficial, on balance. From Michael’s post, Til we meet again:

OK, so let me try to answer the most serious question I’ve gotten about this decision: why not just cut down? Post something under 2000 words for a change? Post once a week or once a month, instead of maniacally posting every weekday? [...]

I’ve tried that, actually, but it doesn’t work. Blog maintenance on this scale is a daily, sometimes hourly thing, regardless of whether there’s a new post up. And even if I didn’t try to maintain the blog on this scale (a good idea in itself), there’s still the problem of the invisible blogging. I don’t write these posts out in advance, you know. I sit down for an hour or two (more for the really long posts), write them in one take in WordPerfect, look ‘em over, transfer ‘em to the blog, preview, edit, submit, and then proofread one last time once they’re up. (Because sometimes you can’t catch a typo until it’s really up there on the blog, and even then, I’ve missed a bunch so far.) Which means, among other things, that I do a great deal of the planning-before-the-writing while I’m not blogging. And that’s what’s been so mentally exhausting. It’s like ABC from Glengarry Glen Ross: Always Be Composing. And while it’s been great mental exercise, and it’s compelled me to think out (and commit myself in public to) any number of things that otherwise would have laid around the mental toolshed for years, it’s not the kind of thing I can keep up forever, and it wouldn’t be seriously affected if I went to a lighter posting schedule. I’d still spend way too much time thinking about the Next Post and the Post After That.

Well, I can certainly relate to that part about typos! I just can’t see them till they get up on the blog–if then. (The new version of Firefox helps, by highlighting things it thinks are typos in this editing window.) And I can relate to his remark about “thinking about the Next Post and the Post After That.” However, in most cases, I have never gotten around to the Next Post and the Post After That (even ones I “promised” in the Last Post), which makes the blog less complete than it could be–but also less time-consuming.

On balance, then, I still find the part about thinking out and committing to things that would otherwise lie around “the mental toolshed” as a big advantage of this medium. And, of course, I already keep a lighter posting schedule than Michael did. Moreover, the lighter readership and (for lack of a better term) commentatorship here at F&V means that my regular maintenance is less than Michael has faced.

In any event, I understand where Michael is coming from (or perhaps I should say, going to), but I’ll miss his good blogging. (Fortunately, he says he will keep the archives up. If you haven’t been reading, head over there and see what I am talking about!)

hat tip: Dan Drezner.

Emphasis in Michael Berube’s original post; internal links suppressed.