Even Jonathan Ames doesn’t want to write about himself anymore. He said that when he was recently interviewed on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. As much as I love to blog and express myself, I have always found the genre of online personal essays to be somewhat problematic. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy a good memoir. The thing about a memoir is that there’s usually some distance between the events that happened and when you write about them. It could be a troubled childhood or adolescence or experiences in a band or working in New York City. A memoir is not normally a “hot take”, but a personal essay typically is.
XO Jane’s personal essays are under the vertical, “It Happened To Me”. I hate the name since it connotes that the essayists have no agency in their own lives. Though Catalog has been remarkable for cataloging all the angst of the twenty-something millennials living in Brooklyn. If these essays are oversharing, then it is just a result of our current pop culture.
I have been living in Savannah for less than four months and when I tell people I am a writer, the reaction has been interesting. I have been asked how to get a book published and how to document a family history. No one asks for my opinion or hot take, but if they wanted one, just give me a day and I could probably whip up something.