Deleted

Re my previous post, I have just gone through my bookmarks and deleted my links to the culture/literature pages of the daily papers.

It was liberating and depressing in equal measure. Depressing, because it reminded me of just how low these sections had sunk (and just how few of them there were in any case). Liberating, because if I want to go and wade in the sewerage, I will have to make a bit more of an effort - one that will give me time to reflect on what I am actually doing and thus turn aside. After a couple of weeks, the habit will be broken completely.

The last straw?

Time and space given to discussing the autobiography of a talentless air-head who isn't old enough to warrant an autobiography.

This is time and space that could have been given over to a talented but less well known writer, someone with something to say and the skill to say it.

Liberating because now, every time I get the urge to see what is happening in the arts in general and in literature in particular, I will employ my time more sensibly by (a) creating a bit of my own and (b) continuing my search for that mythical website/forum where talented and off-beat writers are reviewed, discussed, and given a bit of the exposure they deserve.

It will be a long quest.

I may be gone some time.