Celebrating the Salon

I’m not someone who tends to overestimate the power of blogging, mainly because I think it’s still in its infancy; we haven’t yet seen the full potential of blogging (I hope). Nevertheless, occasionally something really wonderful happens in the blogosphere—the blossoming of an idea, as someone presents an interesting thought, and someone else takes it and adds to it, and on and on it goes. It isn’t always something important on a grand scale, but it always makes me feel quite good about and satisfied by this endeavor.

The past couple of days, that’s happened in a most wonderful way. It started with Mannion’s post, Batman Doesn’t Hit Girls, which was a brilliant essay on a changing pop culture landscape. I pulled out one idea and wrote about gaming girls, which was about the experience of a particular kind of girl, and also a commentary on the distinction between sexism and simply experiencing things differently as members of opposite sexes. Now Ezra has picked up on that post, and written just an amazing piece on heroes, which he also ties into another post I wrote on Cindy Sheehan.

(Mannion deserves some sort of extra special credit for starting another of these recently, with his post on Why Conservatives Feel Free to Cast the First Stone, leading to my Scarred, leading to the Green Knight’s Conservatives and Sin.)

In large part, my enjoyment of this particular happenstance is selfish; it’s meaningful to be a part of what is, essentially, a modern take on the 18th century salons, the members of which were once described by Jean-François Marmontel as “so well assorted…they fell into harmony like the strings of an instrument touched by an able hand.” Watching an idea move between clever and engaged minds seems worthy of evoking a similar description, and I feel ever grateful to be a part of it. (And thoroughly delighted when I see it happening amongst blogs that don’t include this one at all.)

Perhaps more importantly, it is a much-needed reminder that, although there is much cause for alarm and consternation over the willful ignorance and contempt for intellectualism which plague our country, there are also still many people who value interesting ideas. Their passion has informed the creation of a space, virtual though it may be, in which all of our lives can become that much richer by sharing and exploring them. And that is cause for celebration.