I feel as though the title of a blog should always be explained to some extent, and especially in this case, considering that I’m referencing Samuel Johnson and almost comparing myself to him (if I am, it is only to emphasize how much of an amazing writer he was and how much I’m not as good as him). Outside of the obvious reference to Johnson, though, we use the word “ramble” all the time, always negatively, usually in an effort to admit the natural human-imperfection of an argument. But why shouldn’t we ramble every once in a while?
In my other blog I tried to explain what I meant by a ramble, though the replies I got were not what I expected, so I assume I misspoke about some key points that I’d like to clear up here. First of all, the most viable question to ask is: what is a ramble? What about someone’s speech makes their dialogue seem rambling? It implies something random, that is, nothing pre-thought out – a tangent of sorts. A tangent, though, tends to be distinctly not part of one’s main point, it’s just an aside that helps clarify the point a bit, but is usually explained with much more detail than is necessary for the situation. Talking about human rights organizations in a conversation about canine mating rituals would be a tangent. A ramble always focuses more on one’s actual line of argument – instead of the tangent being an aside, the tangent is your actual argument, going wherever chaos leads it. I see it as distinct from a tangent in the sense that there is an end in mind usually, the path is just somewhat foggy.
That’s what I mean when I say that I have written a ramble or that I’m just rambling, especially in relation to blogs – I sat down at my laptop, I had a topic in mind and a general end. How I would eventually get to that end, I would have no idea from the start, but let it sort itself out as the argument progresses, with varying results – sometimes the uncharted nature of this style of writing allows me to come at different outcomes than I foresaw. In this sense, it’s not much different than if I organized everything out, picked some pretty texts to quote, and organized a clearly constructed argument. Longer works need organization, but a blog is self-contained enough so any messiness in its composition is rounded in by its short length. And my rambling arguments usually follow a relatively clear trajectory in reasoning, so they shouldn’t be too hard to understand. The last time I described a ramble, I spoke of it as an online journal of sorts, with my thoughts just falling as they will out onto the keys and the screen, and without any real regard for public understanding. I admit that my arguments might be a little shaky at times, but I hope that they are always understandable. The difficulty in describing rambling is the chaos that’s part of its creation – without any official planning (besides my frequent dwelling on the topic in my thoughts for some time before writing), the argument might come out very solid and clear, or weak and blurry. My goal, however, is to always be understood. Rambles, in a sense, are like journal entries, in that one never (I hope) outlines a journal entry before writing it. It just comes, and you put your thoughts down as best you can so you might understand them later while rereading the journal.
I view blogs, to a large extent, as rambles, as perfect for the ramble. Like Johnson’s The Rambler, they can reach a large amount of people, and allow expression of the author’s thoughts, opinions, and insights into whatever topics of discussion he or she can think of. The Rambler’s acclaim comes from the fact that Johnson wrote it, but what about us lay-people, the non-Johnsonians who still have thoughts that might be worthy of a bit of conversation and discussion? That is why this blog is called “The Nobody’s Rambler.” I am not Johnson, but I should like to Ramble. Because we all ramble – we all have thoughts that cannot be wrapped up so neatly in their initial expression. I would not wish to have these rambles published for themselves – Johnson’s could be because they were written by Samuel Johnson – but they are perfect for allowing helpful conversation and discussion on topics that might otherwise go undiscussed, floating about in our heads throughout the days without a single chance to send them out into the world, even if only through uttering them to another soul, and letting their petals gain some color, letting their leaves grow flush with life, their stalks stand firm in the sun.
One doesn’t have to be Samuel Johnson to have a beautiful or insightful thought. I am not saying that everything I think is beautiful – but what if that’s true? More so, what if everything that all of us thinks has some beauty, some appeal worth dwelling on? This is the Nobody’s Rambler because I’m just a Nobody – I will not be recognized on the street, I might never be. But that’s not to say my philosophizing is all for naught. There’s a beauty in the everyday side of things that many of us often overlook, and realizing the potential for beauty everywhere might make the world a shade lighter, nothing intense, just a small flick of sun.
Why blogs? Why rambles? Why not organize one’s thoughts before explaining them? The first question is easy enough – blogs are on the internet. How many people are on the internet? Not all of them, but quite a few. It is a place where anyone can post their thoughts and have the possibility that someone else could read them, comment on them, praise or criticize them, even (dare I say) be influenced by them! True, this leaves for the possibility that just about anything will go up on the internet, from eloquent dissertations on sexuality in post-colonial literature to fan fiction, but even the trashiest and most uninteresting blogs leave one with some overbearing question, one that might not even be apparent, but is there none the less. So, why rambles then? They are the working man’s argument! How many instances does one really wish to take a simple idea that just desires some discussing and questions and turn it into an entire essay? Sometimes thoughts need to simply be said, without any flourishing, without some need to make them publishable – if they are readible, then they are discussable. A ramble is a thought’s purest and most coherent expression – the thought is laid as it is, though adorned with enough sense so that others might ponder over it for a while.
So ramble! Let your thoughts flow in your blogs, in your journals, wherever you may be able to get them out of your heads and into reality! Ramble because you’ve got something to say that you think needs to be said, some thought that you need to argue over. Ramble because holding that thought inside might make your head a bit more cluttered and stuffy than it needs to be. Perhaps most importantly, Ramble because you can! This blog is a collection of my rambles. I will try to update it every week, though I’m sure I’ll fail on that often enough. I will talk about art, about life, about love, about whatever is going on around me (and, in some sense, around you). They will range from the trivial to the universal, but I will try to make sure that they all bear some truth, even when they’re lies, and that they all bear some importance, even if they’re meaningless. Please read them, please comment on them, please argue with them. Please write some rambles yourself! Maybe we need to ramble a bit more often…
The Nobody's Rambler 