[Main Blog Post] [Book] Thoughts on The Sunlilies - and a Request

[jprussell]

Another fairly short write-up of a book I read of late, this time The Sunlilies by Graham Pardun. Though this book is written from very much within the Eastern Orthodox worldview, I found it to have a number of useful spiritual insights for those of us outside of that, but your mileage may, of course, vary.

Besides the post, I also have a request: I would very much appreciate it if you enjoy my writing if you either a) subscribe to my DIY mailing list, or b) let me know in a comment whatever reasons you'd prefer not to.

While I am mainly writing as a way to gather and sharpen my thoughts, it's nice to have some idea of whether what I'm writing is worthwhile to folks. Email subscriptions tend to be a pretty strong indicator of genuine interest, and should writing ever turn into a part of how I earn my keep, email lists are very helpful (promoting new books, soliciting more direct feedback, and so forth).

So, I'm starting to feel my way around that whole process, but refusing to do it the easy way and just creating a substack. Not that I'm going to start selling anything any time soon, and if I ever do, I will give everyone on the list a chance to get out of Dodge before the shilling commences, and after that, I will do my very best to make it occasional and non-annoying.

Oh, and btw, if you are not interested in subscribing, I will in no way be offended, but I would be just as glad to hear your reasons, as that also helps me understand the landscape I'm dealing with.

Comments

[sdi]

Hi Jeff! I don't subscribe for the simple reason that your posts are hit-or-miss for me—I am only interested in perhaps 20% of what you write about (for example, I am uninterested in society and sociology, actively disinterested in Christianity and any insights gleaned from it, etc.). Because of that signal-to-noise ratio, I consider it more efficient to check in periodically and see if there's content I'm interested in, rather than be pushed content that I probably won't be interested in. That is to say, psychologically, I prefer to find a surprise every so often than to have to filter things I don't want!

And that's not to say you should cater to my interests: it's important to me that everyone does their own weird thing. But because my weird thing is, you know, weird, I tend not to subscribe to very much. :)

[causticus]

Hey Jeff, on

(b) I have similar reasons as SDI re: signal/noise, though I am very much interested in sociology and society. Besides that, I see all of your posts in my feed here without any difficulty, so subscribing by email would be quite redundant and unnecessary.

On being reluctant to blog on substack, I feel you. One of the big dangers of participating on a big platform with a big user base (youtube and twitter being the most notorious) is having your content succumb to what I (and I think some others have) would term "audience capture." If your blog were to be successful to the point of having at least a few paying subscribers, you might find yourself writing what they want to hear rather than what you really want to talk about.

Even on this tiny little platform I've found myself refraining from making public posts on topics I don't think my subs would have any interest in; the last thing I want to do is clog up their feeds with the written equivalent of white noise.

Having said all of that, a substack might be a good idea if you were to write about a single theme or topic you might think would have broader appeal than what you normally post about there. I'm thinking of going that route if I were to build myself a content brand around a topic I'm intensely interested in (like history) that might be able to attract an audience larger than the very niche stuff we tend to talk about here on DW.

[thinking_turtle]

Thanks for your blog! I read:

a big problem if you believe that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God

It seems to me that when God speaks through humans, he cannot speak truth, because human language cannot express truth. Likewise, two human statements can contradict, while both represent aspects of the underlying truth. To go even further, what God would say in 1024 is not what he would say in 2024, because the meaning of words and the context is different. So for me the bible contradicting itself doesn't conflict with the bible being the word of God.

I tried to subscribe to your mailing list. I think I've tried before. I pick up new post through your Magic Monday contribution.

[boccaderlupo]

I'm in a similar boat with some folks here, in that I generally don't subscribe...to anything. I prefer sniffing around, as it were, but has no reflection on your writing, per se.

All the best,
Fra' Lupo