
I regularly submit to e[lust] and nearly always read the entire digest. It’s a really good way to find new bloggers, as well as catch posts from bloggers I’m familiar with but aren’t regularly interested in their content.
I’ve learned a lot from e[lust].
I have discovered I hate it when people try to write in prose. Unsurprisingly, I don’t much care for poetry either. I just don’t get it. Write what you want to say, not what fits into some sorta beat-poetry-type structure.
Sometimes.
Sometimes.
Sometimes I think.
I think that people TRY TOO FUCKING HARD.
Of course, e.e. cummings was a Guggenheim Fellow twice and I just have a blog.
I’ve also learned that erotic literature is, for me, deeply personal, and I find no sexual value in the vast majority of it. I am sure many people find the work contributed to e[lust] by erotic writers highly engaging (and, perhaps, engorging). I am sad to say I do not. I feel the same way abut porn. If it isn’t very specifically what I am interested in, in that moment, I have no desire for it. It’s hard to be me.
I’ve also learned that a lot of people seem to have no instinct about what makes a blog attractive to read. There are so many misaligned sidebar ads, terrible fonts, extremely slow loading pages, and non-functioning plugins that It hurts my brain. Less is more, people.
Finally, I’ve learned that there are a lot of really smart, really eloquent writers out there. I look forward to reading even more.