People of Substance

Do you think writers and artists either know or have some inkling that their body of work will survive after their death? On one level its a no brainer: of course a book or painting is not alive so it doesn't die when its creator dies but does it allow the creator to live on in other people? I mean, take Shakespeare or an artist like Monet: their work inspires new people in different generations to create art that draws upon the influence of their original work and so allow the originators to live on in an ethereal sense. Whatever it is that makes an artist or a writer (not necessarily just fiction) survive through generations must be some kind of substance, something substantial about them and their work. I think about this in the context of everyday life, these people must have led ordinary lives - had to complete daily functional tasks we all do like getting washed and dressed, shopping for food, eating etc. and yet they managed to surpass the ordinary somehow to produce great works (even if not recognised as such at the time). I worry sometimes about how I spend my time. I listen to the radio, watch the TV, read magazines, play videogames, plus all the necessary stuff as well as be a father, son and husband and frankly there is precious little time to create anything of substance. When I was in my youth I had lots of time to write - too much time and very little life experience. At times I was deeply lonely and unhappy but writing was something that I could always enjoy. My dilemma, if you want to call it that, is that I want to write but I have so little time to myself and there is so much entertainment out there to consume. I struggle with creative expression vs entertainment consumption.

Do you think that there are blogs that exist created by people who are now dead? I think there must be some out there. Some by people whose death was unexpected, some by people who knew they were dying. I just had a thought for the gap in the search engine market - a directory of blogs by dead people.

I wonder if anyone in the future will be remembered by their blog? Could a blog inspire other people creatively in the way a novel or a poem could? I don't see why not but I don't feel the Internet has any sense of permanence about it - we link to a lot of hosting sites and who knows how the Internet will change in future. Our content could get dissipated and deleted without warning at any time. The Internet will cease to exist as we know it now and it will become something else, I feel certain about this, the net at the moment is an embryo and I don't know what the adult will be.