The State of the Blog

(This is a rambling and narcissistic examination of what PV is and what it will be--feel free to ignore this post entirely if you're looking for specific sports takes, but feel free to read if you're interesting in blogging and where this blog is going in particular. The football season is winding down, the Vikings are already eliminated, and the new year is coming--it's a good time to take stock and make any desired changes).

The internet is an existentialist and postmodernist dream. Not only can you create and define a new identity, but you can create multiple identities. And then at any point, you can change everything. You can eliminate anything, transform anything, evolve into anything.

I started this blog not so much out of a great desire to write about sports, but out of a desire to write. I like to share ideas, formulate arguments, examine language, and engage in dialogue. Sports, professional coverage of sports, and the sports blogosphere provides a great opportunity to engage in these activities. There are a lot of people out there similarly interested in expressing ideas about sports. It's also a lot of fun.

So here's the question for now: Where do we go from here?

This blog has always been and will always be titled "Pacifist Viking." That title is important. For ten months I've been writing here under this nom de plume, though "What was that bang?" was added as a contributor (he suggested that the tone of PV was too mellow and anxious, and that it lacked energy and emotion. While this accusation might surprise anybody who has watched a Viking game with me--lots of yelling, seething, and jumping around--I re-read some posts and I could see his point. So I invited him on board to share some of his positivity about the Purple). But though I'm still a pacifist and still a viking (and will still probably use that name elsewhere), I'm evolving and transforming into a new identity, "Vegan Viking." I'll still focus this blog on the NFL and the Minnesota Vikings in particular, but I'm going to try and expand into broader sports discussion and analysis (of course, since I have neither internet nor ESPN in my home, spectating the broader sports world is itself a bit of a challenge--we'll see how this evolution goes). I'll try to give unique and eccentric takes on whatever I can in the sports world, because that's why blogs exist. If you want pseudo-objective takes from non-fans, you don't need to read blogs. And as I play around and experiment with different styles and angles (though with many of the same old angles--even though one commenter said I have "given up my licence" (CLICHE! CLICHE!) to criticize the overuse of cliched metaphors by Peter King and other lousy sportswriters, we'll assume that I still do have my license, or at any rate will criticize without licence and see if I get pulled over), I'll still try to focus on the Vikes and football and what I've done in the past. But I don't want to get stagnant, so I'm going to try and push the writing in new directions (I feel a little like Barney of the Be Sharps in that statement).

We'll see if there's a change at all. Sometimes intended transformations lead to more of the same--Vegan Viking may become Vegetarian Viking or may revert back to Pacifist Viking. Regardless of how the new angles go, What was that bang? has expressed a desire and intention to write more often here about the Vikings in particular. So whatever I write about, we'll still have his overly optimistic yet angry takes on what our beloved Purple is up to.