What the world doesn’t need: yet another blog…

I once said I’d rather snort Marmite than write another blog. So, what happened? Coronavirus happened plus a few other things, though my hatred of Marmite remains. Web hosting has got a lot cheaper (at least for the first year), my better mood has returned with the sunnier weather, longer days and copious intake of Vitamin D, and I simply felt that Twitter was no longer serving my needs. Sometimes I want to write something longer. I also keep writing things that aren’t a good fit for the world/that nobody else wants.

One of my first pieces on here, The Wisest Man Who Ever Lived, would have no obvious home. Maybe in the middle of the last century, I would have tried Punch but that kind of magazine no longer exists or, if they do (The New Yorker), they’re by invitation only. There will be other pieces equally odd, as well as blog posts such as this. Getting anything published today remains almost as elusive today as it was ten years ago. Perhaps it would easier if I lived in London. Hell, I’m sure it would be easier if I lived in London. I could doorstep editors or perhaps get to know the odd one by kicking their shins socially. From this corner of the North West, everything is done by email and I spend a great deal of my time writing to fill slush piles.

That’s why I thought I’d relaunch my blog if I could find a cheap place requiring minimal technical effort. I also wanted to go back to Wordpress, which remains my favourite blogging software. I have a Blogger account over at davidwaywell.blogspot.com but I hate Blogger. It’s horrible and unwieldy.

As for the domain name: I originally hoped to get my old davidwaywell.com address but I’d let it lapse years ago and, given the way the domain name business works, it was bought up by some reseller who would now charge me £1000 to get it back. I, therefore, had to think of a new name, which wasn’t easy.

Good domains are hard to find. It’s difficult finding something short and memorable. I was probably in the second hour of searching when I looked up at my bookshelves (always a good source of inspiration). That’s when I saw my copy of Pope, a bit dusty by now, but still a favourite. I tried Dunciad.com, pretty sure it would be gone. You know the rest.

I know it’s arrogant to purloin the name of one of the great works of fiction in order to publish my nonsense beneath it but I figure The Dunciad was all about hacks and scribblers, which pretty much sums me up. I hope you enjoy this blog. Even more, I hope I enjoy it.

2 thoughts on “What the world doesn’t need: yet another blog…”

  1. Look at it this way, there’s a website domain out there with your name on it that’s worth ÂŁ1000! I like the blog. Laid out very nicely and it’s always good to hear your thoughts in a more expanded and informal prose. I feel like Twitter forces us to condense the most extreme parts of our personality in order to have impact or get noticed. I’ll be reading!

    1. Ha! It’s actually “worth” $3495 but it’s totally arbitrary. Really it’s worth no more than the $5 I originally paid. I hate those scammers who suck up all the domains when they lapse so they can screw people out of the money.

      Thanks for the kind words. Means a lot — and it really does in ways I should really sit down and try to articulate one day — and encourages me to make this a regular habit.

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Why Dunciad.com?

It’s a cool domain name and it was available. Yes, I know. Available. Crazy, isn’t it?

Really?

Yes. It also helps that it’s also my favourite satire written by Alexander Pope, one of the most metrically pure English poets who also knew his way around a crude insult or two. If you’ve not read it, you should give it a try.

So this is satire, right?

Can’t deny it. There will be some. But it’s also an experiment in writing and drawing, giving work away for free in order to see how many people are willing to support a writer doing his thing. It’s the weird stuff that I wouldn’t get published elsewhere in this word of diminishing demands and cookie-cutter tastes.