33.The Silence of the Blogs

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When we studied the Old Testament at school very many years ago, certain phrases stuck in our mind. One such appears in the description of the contest of Elijah with the prophets of Baal. It is a dramatic and amusing story. It is among the scenes preserved on the walls of the fourth century synagogue in Dura Europos. The pagan prophets are trying to invoke their god, but 'there was no voice, and no reply, and none to listen.'
(I R 18:29)
The fresco (above the pictorial dado) shows the prophets of Baal trying to cheat, by hiding a man under the altar to light the 'miraculous' fire. But a serpent is sent by god to kill him - a post-biblical addition. We were told by our teacher that this threefold lack of response was the greatest possible insult: there was no one even listening.

This absence of Baal's response brings me to my blog. Ruth installed a 'stat counter' for me, so that I can see how many people have looked at my blog either once, or more than once. The total is about a dozen per week. As Maureen Lipman in the BT advertisement would say, 'it's not exactly all the rage, is it?' Yet my blog gives my email, and you can even respond anonymously. In conversation, a few friends have told me 'by the way', that they do read my blog. And today, for the first time, Judith received an unsolicited comment from an 'avid reader'. Thank you, Shirley!
Maybe I should not grumble. We are all more likely to complain, than to praise. So no response is probably a good sign. And I would not like to receive a message from some solicitor saying,
'We are acting for XYZ, whom you have libelled in your blog of [date], etc'
I am cynical, outspoken, and not legally trained: that is a dangerous combination. So I'm careful. The nearest I have dared to come in previous blogs was the naming of two individuals 'whom I detest'. They cannot touch me for that; and I have plenty of dirt to dish about them if necessary, just in case.

Many years ago our eldest daughter earned some pocket money in the evenings by scanning the draft of The Times for libel or defamation before it went to press. But she is working hard nowadays, and I do not wish to involve her in any extra tasks. Furthermore, she does not actually read my blog, because she prefers messages to be directed to her explicitly. So when a post is relevant, I will attach it to an email.
Another reason not to involve her is because one should not deal professionally with one's own relatives - although I myself have totally ignored this principle, provided that it is within my medical competence: I even cut a sebaceous cyst out of a close relative's neck.

Blogs are impersonal and require some stimulus to invoke a response. Looking at the responses to my daughter's blogs, they are certainly a mixed lot. Some comments only signify that the blog has been read: 'ooh, ah!' - similar to the inane comments by 'MED, USA' about the Israel photographs in Arutz 7 on the web.

But emails are different. If I have a question or comment - I send an email message. This action will reveal the other phenomenon of those who do not respond. My most recent example is my critical blog about the book of Egyptian medicine [17 July]. It had an undeserved complimentary foreword by a Pennsylvania professor, Donald Redford. On Google, he was quite famous. So I emailed him, attached my post and asked him why he had not been more critical. My email did not 'bounce', but it was not acknowledged as I routinely request; and he has not answered. A number of reasons are possible, and replies are sometimes delayed. We shall see - and an addendum may follow.

Blogs are useful. Apart from giving me an outlet for venting my anger or for amusement, we now get much more day-to-day information about our middle daughter from her blog than from any number of enquiries by phone. So now we phone her not to ask, but to comment.

Emails are free: please do respond - anonymously if you wish. But remember: I know where you live!