To target a specific topic, just put the name in the Search Bar (top right, below the banner). If you’re only looking for refs to Hannes Bok (or other), punch that name into the Search Bar.
The posts have Tags at the bottom, so you can pull up all mentions of something in the text of interest to you. Some semblance of chronological order informs the summoned-up list of posts, but it’s not perfect.
Some names — Hammett, for example, with his own category Dash denoting a Hammett connection — are mentioned much too often to just search for “Hammett”. But you can use Tags to track down references to specific stories or elements of his life, such as Lillian Hellman or the Valentine’s Day publication of The Maltese Falcon.
And other more detailed and long-term topics, such as Robert E. Howard, or pure texts for Hammett, or Haefele and his Heretics, are sure to bog you down in the sheer number of mentions.
You might begin to find yourself lost in the maze. One guy new to the site surfed in looking for some Hammett reference, and reported that he plunged into a rabbit warren it took him all day to get clear of — consider that your warning.
In my opinion, the easiest way to handle the maze of the blog would be to go back to the first month it became operational.
If you start from the first post for the new blog in January 2011, I honestly think reading the whole thing to date is no more difficult than just sitting down and reading a book (if you don’t allow yourself to be led too far astray by the links). Just move ahead to the next post, and the next, and the next. You’ll be current in no time.
That way, you get the development of ideas, you’re in on the discoveries, you see the exact moment when Autograph Mania swept the site. Lots of cool stuff. A home movie of Hammett is a highlight.
Reading up, you’ll quickly determine which posts you can immediately skip as of no interest to you — and the fact is that most posts are pretty short. A quick glance, and they’re done.
Sounds daunting, maybe, but I am confident it is an easier process than jumping around through the endless tunnels I have set out for the unwary.
Up to you.
