My name is David King Landrith. I pretend to be Miranda Park Jones, and she is not real.
Unlike my co-bloggers, I offer no general apology. After all, I have historically been among the most reviled participants in the Bloggernacle. Why stop now? And I’m not generally sorry for what this blog accomplished. On the contrary, I’m very proud to have participated in this blog.
Most of the comments condemning Banner of Heaven ignore the fact that it has been a tremendous success. And the reason for this success is that Banner of Heaven has the best commenters in the bloggernacle–they deserve a hell of a lot of credit. From the deepest depths of my heart, I want to say: Thank you. It pains me to think that you might be hurt. You will never be laughed at or mocked, and you shouldn’t feel kicked around. You should feel immensely proud. You are the best and the brightest in the bloggernacle, and I have the utmost respect for you. Look at the difference between the discussion at Nine Moons, which was heavily weighted with regular Banner contributors, and the discussion on the other blog, which was not. The Nine Moons discussions were funny and they even gave away prizes. The discussion on the other is dominated by a lot of moralizing and condemnation. That’s the difference between Banner of Heaven commenters and the folks that hang out over there. That’s why I was not banned here, but I was banned there (and we’d have banned me, too, if the public sentiment had supported it). I wouldn’t trade you for the world.
Personally, I put a lot of time into writing posts and making comments as Miranda Park Jones, and I wrote them for you, the readers. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed them. I made sure that the blog had all of the polish of a professionally developed web site. All this, when I stood to gain nothing from it materially. In doing so, I provided a forum for public discussion wherein people participated in good faith, and this forum was provided in good faith even if it was provided under false pretense. I understand that these efforts are not appreciated by many who are reading this post, and I regret that.
Those who made personal disclosures did so in public when known private avenues of communication were available. And I, as DKL, participated right alongside you in public. I’ve made all of my most candid comments here at Banner of Heaven for all to see.
I have offered a private, individual apology to annegb, and I re-iterate it here. annegb goes above and beyond the call of duty in responding to and caring about those with whom she corresponds. Her level of participation and devotion is without precedent and without equal. Moreover, she seems to get what I write, and she’s always been kind enough to defend me from unfair criticism—including Miranda’s. annegb, I’m sorry.
Why did I choose to participate? Because I thought that we could create something fun and interesting. I think that we succeeded.
Why did I choose to play a feminist woman from Lewiston, Idaho? Because it is funny, and because I wanted people to have something to laugh at when we finished. My posts are still up, and you can see them if you click on the “Miranda” button. (Ronan, my first post was not on anti-depressants, it was on a feminist reading of Esther; you missed the “Next Page” button.)
I also did it because I could do it. Not that I could get away with it, but that I was constitutionally and intellectually capable of credibly playing a feminist housewife from Lewiston, Idaho who contributed and produced a prodigious output while still holding my own as DKL. And that means quite a lot to me. So much so, in fact, that I couldn’t help but boast in an earlier thread:
As far as the time that it takes to blog: Get real! Writing original content doesn’t scare me. I could write [Miranda’s] posts, [Miranda’s] comments, my comments, manage my family relationships, magnify my church callings, and hold down a job.
I’m also responsible for the look and feel of the Banner of Heaven. Steve chose the Northern Web Coders template and found the domain. I modified the template to it’s current look, and I wrote all of the plug-ins that we use except the ones for live comment preview, the spam blocker, and the Creative Commons icon.
How do I feel now that it’s over? Sad. I’m going to miss my co-bloggers, Naomi, Allison, Brian, Steve, and Christian. People who group blog will understand, but you get to know people that way. You all put up with me, and that says a lot (it’s more than the crew at Times and Seasons was capable of). And you were a joy to correspond with on an almost daily basis. We no longer have a good excuse to correspond regularly, and I’m really going to miss that. And thanks for all the pointers and the feedback on making sure that Miranda didn’t slowly become DKL over time.
What I didn’t predict, and what I couldn’t have predicted, was the high quality of the group of people that took the time to comment here and make this a fun and interesting place. I couldn’t care less about the johnny-come-lately’s that are moralizing, but I want our regular participants to know how great they are. They should be proud of what they helped to create here. All those nay-sayers who self selected themselves out of the comment pool missed out on a lot of fun. Again, thank you. You all are the best!