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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

About Julie, Julia and blogging

My favorite scene in the movie Julie and Julia, which I watched last night, was when Julia Child blew a raspberry at a French chef who told her she had no talent.

For those of you who may not know what giving a raspberry looks like, here's a video.



You get the idea.

Although the movie was very entertaining and made me laugh out loud a number of times, I also learned that Julia Child began to cook late in life. Her husband was working in France and she was looking for something to do. So she took cooking classes and as the only woman in the class found herself in the position of not being taken seriously. So she set out to "be fearless", pounding at mounds of onions, dissecting poultry and eventually finishing the course to work on her cookbook about French cooking.

Of course this movie is also about a blogger who sets out to cook all the recipes in the cookbook in a year. Her name is Julie. She not only accomplished that, but became a published author.

When she first started out, she didn't have any readers for her blog. Her mother left a comment pointing that out. It was humorous,especially as a blogger, to see the reactions of everyone around Julie when she really did get readers and eventually her blog took off.

Those of us who blog know about the skeptics. They ask why you're wasting your time doing that. They want to know how many readers you have. They may see that you get negative comments -or even leave negative comments. Bloggers, however, are a hardy lot and are not easily discouraged. We tend to hang in there, even in the face of total derision. Personally, I wouldn't stop blogging no matter what, not as long as I have Internet access and the ability to get my thoughts down.

In fact, the only thing in this movie that was missing was that there was no scene where Julie, the blogger, gave anyone the raspberry. If there was I didn't see it,but I'm sure somebody will let me know if I'm wrong. Because when you're a blogger that's how it goes.

It's very good training for being somebody who follows her dreams.

So go pick up the movie-or blog-or do whatever your heart tells you. Julia Child did and she did all right for herself. So did Julie Powell.

2 comments:

Amy Kelly said...

Oh I was so happy to read this post! :-) I saw Julie and Julia with my mom and two of her friends. None of them blog, I don't think any of them spend any significant time on the web at all.

So I was wishing I had a blogging friend with whom to talk about it. I have a total of 5 readers, and that includes family and friends who read just to be nice. ;-)

Granted, my blog was never very focused or "public worthy", like you amazing blog that is interesting and incredibly helpful...a real public service, and enjoyable reading. I rambled about anything that hit my fancy, got me passionate, or torked me off. Again, very randomly.

ANd now I mostly blog about my kids...my own internet baby book, because I don't have the discipline to keep a print one. Not the stuff for fascinating reading to anyone who doesn't personally know my kids. But I still giggled with delight when Julie got all excited by her first comment. I remember when I got my first comment. Even though my blog will never be famous, I still could relate to Julie's feelings about hers..does anybody read it? Does anybody care?

I don't know where I was going with this except to say we love to write about our thoughts and feelings and experiences...and we love to hear about other people expressing similar thoughts and feelings. Its part of being human. I love blogs! ;-) ANd I love YOUR blog! Thank you so much for all you do!

Ruth said...

Dear Amy,

Thanks ---but -- you have two toddlers and have been blogging for five years and you're complimenting me?!? God bless *you* Your blog is a wonderful place ! Thanks so much for reading and commenting!