Evolution of the Blog

Unbillable Hours has a lengthy and thoughtful essay on the mutations of the Blog form into journalism, criticism, scholarship, and literature. What his essay suggests to me is that Blogs are subject to a kind of natural selection. Out of the thousands, perhaps millions of Blogs, many are little read and quickly abandoned. Of the smaller number that persist and survive, many qualify as journalism. A few devote themselves to serious criticism or scholarship. The handful that will endure as literature represent the evolutionary apex of the form. As with life or literature in print, it is almost impossible to tell in advance which these will be. I share TPB, Esq.'s confidence that there willl be some, however.