Malcolm in the Middle of the Blogosphere

Typepad users have been tipped off to a new blog by New Yorker writer and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell.  In his first post, Gladwell offers a novel reason for why periodical writers and book authors should also blog.

In the past year I have often been asked why I don’t have a blog. My answer was always that I write so much, already, that I don’t have time to write anything else. But, as should be obvious, I’ve now changed my mind. I have come (belatedly) to the conclusion that a blog can be a very valuable supplement to my books and the writing I do for the New Yorker. What I think I’d like to do is to use this forum to elaborate and comment on and correct and amend things that I have already written. If you look on my website, on the "Blink" page, you’ll see an expanded notes and bibliography, which mostly consists of copies of emails sent to me by readers. Well, I think I’d like to start posting reader comments for everything I write, and this is a perfect place for that. There are also times when I think I’ve made mistakes, or oversights, and I’d like to use this space to explain myself and set things right.

As a pop intellectual, Gladwell is open to criticism that he oversimplifies in pursuit of a broader audience.  On his blog, however, it looks like Gladwell may add the nuance that he has to leave out in his other writings.  In a move that will warm the hearts of lawyers, law students, and legal academics, Gladwell has indicated that his blog will cite to sources.  "[T]he New Yorker is not an academic publication: we don’t footnote every source the way people do in scholarly journals."  But his blog will -- and in the first post he mentions several works he had to leave out of his recent pit bull article, including works by David Harris and Frederick Schauer.  Today Gladwell has a post on the criticism in Freakonomics of the "broken windows" policing theory -- a theory that he heralded in the New Yorker.  Gladwell does a nice job sharpening the details in their disagreement; he ultimately ascribes the dispute to the difference in perspectives between psychology and economics.

If Gladwell continues in this vein, his blog will be a real contribution for readers who are looking for more depth and nuance.  Here's hoping he continues the conversation.