When they write the history of the media revolution known as blogging, James Lileks will — at the very least — get a footnote. Depending on your definition, The Bleat is probably more proto-blog than blog (especially since it stubbornly resists an RSS feed), but it was certainly one of the early online columns to get the attention of netizens. Though The Bleat seems seldom referenced by bloggers today, Hip Minnesota makes rather unhip argument that Lileks’ online column and his books (though not his print column) deserve a second look. It is time to give the godfather his due?
The Godfather Of Blog
Jan 9 2006 — 2:00am
16 Reader Comments
4:15 pm
Lileks is the most overrated, candyassed writer in the Twin Cities. Whatever happened to his lower-case middle initial?
4:25 pm
Hey, Mick Collins is a fan. It can’t be that unhip.
4:27 pm
In terms of chronology, yeah, Lileks was one of the early voices in blogdom. Also, prolly one of the most read. Hip Minnesota nails it when they say Lileks is “a valiant defender of the status quo” and “Lileks lets loose with a sharpness that he must deliberately strangle for his newspaper column.” Which is fine for the backfence at the StarTribune. Actually, that’s perfect for the STrib.
I agree with Earl, however. There aren’t enough bad things to say about Lileks. If we’re going to do second looks, let’s also include his totally inflated and ridiculous postings for weeks and weeks after the World Trade Center attacks.
4:34 pm
I’m with Earl. Lileks is a doofus, but his BackFence schlock makes his blog writing read like pure poetry. (Is he still Backfencing, or did Katherine Kersten get his slot?)
4:39 pm
I think it’s difficult to call him over-rated, since it seems no one pays attention to him anymore. Or at least that’s the assumption this post is sorta based upon, which could be completely wrong…
5:33 pm
As a Fargo native, I concede a soft spot for Lileks’ schmaltzy reminiscence on the Island Park gazebo.
5:50 pm
He started his columnist career as a mildly amusing Dave Barry. When that didn’t pan out, he went in two directions … the unreadably inane Bulletin Board-knockoff Backfence, and the increasingly incoherent neocon spew/fundamentalism apologia on his blog.
5:53 pm
Lileks who?
5:54 pm
One of our local scared-shitless-take-my-freedom-please neocons.
5:58 pm
Dave Barry imitator, meant to say.
6:17 pm
Lileks is the Garrison Keiller of blogging.
They both make me vomit in my mouth a bit.
7:34 pm
I like the non-blog sections of his site (e.g., Minneapolis). But the blog itself is sort of worthless.
7:57 pm
He’s too wordy. If he mentions Gnat (his little girl, sweet kid, I’m sure) in the first three graphs, I don’t finish the column.
He loves old pictures, and so do I. His treasure trove of Fargo shots are great.
Otherwise, he’s glib but loves his kitsch a little too much for my taste.
9:51 pm
He’s definitely got some chops; I always enjoy his Quirk columns as well as the cultural-ephemera parts of his site. The Bleat, however, is a pretty mediocre affair and sometimes downright embarrassing, as when he underwent an enraged 5-alarm meltdown last year after James Wolcott shot some not-at-all-flattering salvos in his direction. As an editorialist his arguments are shabby and his conclusions easily disproved. There’s talent there to become a first-rate humorist; why he’s hitched his wagon to the likes of Hugh Hewitt and His Carnival of Ineffectual Blogs is beyond me.
2:32 am
I’m not as hip as my blog claims I am. I should have called it “Max’s Wacky Minnesota,” but at blogger they make you pick a blog name before you’ve settled on an editorial agenda.
10:02 am
i think i disagree with Rex’s headline summary of Max’s piece; I expected to read more about Lileks as a “proto-blogger” (regardless of his politics or the content of the blog), cuz that strikes me as an interesting idea, and probably true. For whatever that’s worth.
But Max was really celebrating his books. I think those are pure vinegar, whereas there’s some wine in the blog. (Speaking strictly as a guy who appreciates good writing. When you do your pushups everyday, at least your triceps start to show it a little bit. Lileks may be soft in the head, but he has triceps, no question about it.)
Basically the man is so acidic that he sours just about anythign he writes about. in my humble view, you have to care about that which you lampoon, or its just mean. lileks is just mean a lot of the time.
sometimes i think he was cryogenically suspended at a moment when he felt threatened by Generation X (or Al Qaeda, same diff), and pledged to be cynical about everything just like “kids these days.” 9/11 happened, and froze his face thataway.
And he has certainly suffered several TKOs in the ring, when the heavyweight Woolcott comes around. TBoggs also had a rippingly funny parody of Lileks here: http://tbogg.blogspot.com/2005/12/very-lileks-christmas-comin-to-town.html