I remember a negative review of Maggie Nelson’s book on cruelty saying that it read like a Tumblr. And I remember thinking – oh man, that would be awesome. It’d be amazing if our essays were like Tumblrs – and took from that project of authenticity, immediacy, rhythmic juxtapositions, voice, aphorisms, fragments. Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project, Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet, Camus’ Notebooks – basically Tumblrs.
The blog, the Tumblr, takes on the aesthetic of the notebook. Sontag writing in her recent published diaries that before literature was epistolary – writing to others – in her recorded time it was now the notebook – writing to oneself. When in fact, now, in essays born out of and on the Internet, it’s both – it’s writing our notebooks to each other.