I ponder these questions on a drizzly summer day, with a slow-falling rain returning a fresh green color to grass turned brown by drought in Northeast Ohio.
I turn to Virginia Woolf for the answers. In particular, I turn to Chapter 1 of A Room of One’s Own: “I thought of how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse perhaps to be locked in.”
As I read, a tingling feeling takes hold of me. It is a feeling of excitement, the excitement of recognition that 78 years after Woolf’s words were first published, they become true for me in a new way.
Blogging, Woolf’s words tell me, allows us access to what the world holds on both sides of the locked door. We can enter a room of our own, where we can create what we imagine. And we can share those creations with the world at large.
Has blogging on the Web not only unlocked the door for women writers, but also thrown away the key?
Thoughts from another literary blogger
In a recent post on Fernham, her literary blog, she says blogs can provide new voices that appeal to niche audiences. These fresh voices — that would often be locked out of the academic or media mainstreams — are able to influence others while soliciting feedback and building community.
So perhaps the Web in general — and blogs in particular — have unlocked the door for women.