Review 3578

There’s only one way to say it: Mutant Panda is one of the most interesting blogs we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing here at The Weblog Review in a long, long time. It is not for everyone, but if you are drawn to writing that is brutally honest and which takes as its subject matter a part of life about which you might have little awareness, you should take a look at Mutant Panda (though perhaps not when you are at work).

The site’s creator, Lex, uses his site to explore and write about complexities deriving from being an openly bisexual, happily married man. This is not a website about gratuitous, sensationalized sex, though it is frequently quite graphic; Lex also writes about the interpersonal dynamics and emotional attachments between his wife and himself, and various other people who pass through their lives.

Lex’s writing style is the strong point of Mutant Panda. He dares to simply convey the raw truth of his life as he sees it, and by no means does he attempt to project himself as a heroic–or necessarily even attractive–protagonist. This is a website for grown-ups, and it is to Lex’s credit that he does not attempt to sanitize or excise content that might be a little too honest for some readers, even his wife. The tone has a confessional quality about it, or as Lex puts it in an introduction to one of his posts: “I wrote it to externalize this thing that is in my head and to exorcise it from my psyche.”

Mutant Panda is another example of how blogging gives people in need of self-expression a format in which they can share whatever they like, without needing to be championed by a publisher whose motives are largely commercial.

The website is constructed using WordPress, and overseen by a first-rate, distinctive panda logo that serves to successfully brand the site. The real star is Lex and his writing however, and further embellishment would be extraneous.

The blog would be invaluable to anyone grappling with some of the specific life challenges Lex faces. But even for people who have no direct connection with these issues or the subculture Lex describes, Mutant Panda is a fascinating, well-written look into a man who pulls no punches as he plumbs his depths in public. Literature has a long tradition of this sort of audacious, sincere introspection, and if Mutant Panda is any indication, blogging looks to be an ideal platform to further the genre.