Sometimes people show up at Somber and Dull puzzled by the strange name. Who would give a blog such a counterintuitive name?
Well, apparently I did. I understand, though, your puzzlement.
In preparation for a future move of this blog to WordPress, I adapted a previous explanation which I am reproducing below.
In short, the title is meant to be ironic. I hope you find it so!
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The title of this blog is intended to be ironic. but not everyone understands that. I may really be somber and dull, but I’m really not trying to be!
A couple years ago I decided one day to see what was involved in creating a blog. When it comes to things like this, I don’t read up on things. I just jump in and fiddle. At that time, I was only aware of Blogger, so I went to that site and began to create.
I quickly was faced with the fact that I had to give the blog a name.
At the time, I had been reading – re-reading, actually – Alan Paton‘s marvelous novel Cry, the Beloved Country
The main character in the novel is a poor, black Anglican pastor named Stephen Kumalo (pictured here as marvelously played by James Earl Jones in the movie version of the novel). Paton introduces Kumalo as “a parson, somber and rather dull, no doubt, and his hair was turning white.”
Well, I’m a parson, and my hair is turning white. I’m not black, but the sobriquet ‘somber and dull’ was kind of appealing to me.
So, that was on my mind, and when Blogger asked for a name, in went Somber and Dull.
It has grown on me. I like the ironic tone. Either way it fits. If the blog is indeed somber and dull, the title is descriptive. If the blog is bright and interesting, then it suits the ironic intent. I can’t lose.
Enough of that. Now go get the book and read it.