Friday 30 August 2013

The Rechristening


I renamed my blog, yay!
I also changed the URL, which means google will no longer direct people who stumble upon the titles of my previous posts to this address. But I doubt that's gonna make much of a difference.
So, my blog’s new name is weird, and I like it all the more for it, due to obvious reasons. And as for the new URL, it is not surprising how well suited I am to that title, again, for obvious reasons. All right, so maybe the reasons are not-so-obvious to you. But I’ll save you the need for brainstorming by telling you the simple reasons why I chose this blog name and what it means. That’s why I’ve written this, of course.
The thing is, I’m a total bookworm, or an egghead, as my friends like to point out. But, the word ‘bookworm’ didn’t sound very… let’s say, catchy (don’t you give me that look, I’m only as narcissistic as you are!). So before creating my blog on WordPress, I did some research, during which I stumbled upon the word ‘bluestocking’. It does not have the same meaning as the word ‘bookworm’, but a similar meaning, and one that better describes me.
A bluestocking is an educated, intellectual woman. The term most often refers to a specific group of 18th-century intellectual women. Until the late 18th century, the term had referred to learned people of both sexes. However it subsequently was applied primarily to intellectual women. The term later developed negative implications, and in some instances such women were stereotyped as being less lady-like.
Well, I obviously copied that from Wikipedia. Anyway, I like this term because it not only implies my bookish-ness, but also says something about my feminist thinking. And as for ‘such women’ being ‘stereotyped as being less lady-like’, well, what can I say? I really give a rat’s ass about that.
Now,  why I love to read (and, to some extent, write), can be summed up somewhat like this. Firstly, as Mark Twain said, and I damn well agree, “The man who does not read good books is at no advantage over the man that cannot read them.” As far as writing is concerned, I have to quote D. H. Lawrence here. “I like to write when I feel spiteful; it’s like a good sneeze.”
As I mentioned, I was trying to find a suitable blog name for my WordPress blog. So, here's the URL for that:
http://thebentuponbluestocking.wordpress.com
Also, if you're wondering why I felt the need for another blog, let me tell you it was only that I wanted to follow certain WordPress blogs, so I had to register for that. But then I thought I might as well make it a twin blog for my blogspot one, so as to have a wider readership. :)

Great, so now I am rambling like a barmy old codger (except, I'm really not one). But even after so much rambling, I have not given a hint of an explanation about why the new URL suits me. But then, I guess you would have worked that out by now. Am I right, or what?