A decent interval has passed since Miss Snark shut down her blog, long enough to consider what literature’s corner of the world gained and lost, how departures never fit into the perpetual arrivals that blogging promised. Miss Snark stopped while she was ahead like Sandy Koufax or Marcus Aurelius ( Conquer Germany? Why?)
Your reporter warmed slowly to Miss Snark. She is a literary agent and in blogging terms held a high ground aspiring writers yearn to occupy. I thought of baseball tryouts where a genuine pro would arrive with an incredible equipment bag, a guy who changed socks to face left handed pitching while the rest of us wore the same socks over and over no matter who was pitching, a tactical disadvantage with enormous implications.
Miss Snark had plenty of socks. She helped open the floodgates to other agents who blog and generally dispensed information to her flock without resorting to indiscriminate ridicule. She created an entertaining if slightly exhausting site wherein subtext ruled the waves. Her audience knew all the words creating the feeling of being at a Grateful Dead concert at three in the morning on a school night.
After CBGB closed I wondered where future generations of punk rockers would go, which sidewalk would contain the assembled mass of Mohawks and lip hardware necessary to create the feeling that unless my Dockers spontaneously combusted my nose would be forever pressed against the window? Or, put another way, what is a blog without a crowd?
Where have Miss Snark’s faithful gone?
I’d never really thought about the connection between Koufax and Marcus Aurelius, but you’re right–both of them gave up the chance to conquer Germany.
I mentioned Miss Snark’s disappearance on my blog and immediately received a bunch of e-mails form people who wanted to grieve with me. Apparently some folks don’t realize she’s still alive somewhere, but it left me feeling as though I needed to prepare some casseroles and confort foods and drop them off at people’s houses.
Blogging is not forever.