Kindred Spirit

While blogging may be relatively new, other forms of short form writing are not. From Pepys to the present, literature has been big on the small, so to speak. Last weekend, while rummaging through the local antique stores, I found a volume of Robert Benchley's essays- After 1903- What? -illustrated by the Aubrey Beardsley-influenced Gluyas Williams.

Benchley, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, wrote short pieces for The New Yoker and other publications and also had a brief career in the movies. These articles portray a mild-mannered man, often bewildered and amused by the world around him. His two or three page ruminations would make for a perfect blog, especially when complemented by Gluyas' sublime drawings.

The older I get the more I realize that a man is a fool to think of himself in first person. With the world changing as it is, there are only second-person plurals.
I could go on looking at life like this forever, just a-sittin' and a-dreamin', with only an occasional attack of nausea.