Letters to the Editor
Tideswimmer
Published Letters: 383 Editor's Choice: 47
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Agree about the whining, but...
[Read the article: Writers, quit whining]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a writer who has made his living at newspapers cranking out copy to extremely tight deadlines, I long ago gave up the idea that writing was my own personal cross to bear. There's no time for such alas and alack moaning. You go get your lunch before you start, eat it at your desk while you type, and you stick at the story and that's how it is done.
However, writing a complex feature article on a given topic with the pressroom waiting and copy editors constantly telling you how many column inches you have -now- and can you also mention X in the story, and the people you most need to talk to for the story are not calling back, and you are also trying to infuse your article with some kind of artistic and emotional resonance while staying away from the dreaded "inverted pyramid" model in which everything below a certain line can simply be deleted at will — well, that process is not easy at all and though I could learn to build a house, I wonder how many homebuilders could learn how to do my job day after day.
As other writers have mentioned here, my biggest complaint would be the people who think that what I do entails enormous amounts of "me time," kicking back in a coffeeshop, sipping lattes pondering ponderingly, and generally relaxing. Their picture of the job seems to be that I am retired for a living. "Oh, I envy you. I wish I could find the time to write someday." Well, then, quit your current job which pays at least twice what I make and has loads of benefits and perks and come work at the average newspaper for crap wages. "Oh, but your work is so good. Surely you must make $XXXX." No, try about half that amount.
Now, I'm trying to make my living as a freelancer. Writing is easy and fun for me; I can't imagine doing any other kind of work. But constantly searching for people to buy my work is not a lot of fun. Garrison's vision of writing and finding a nice cozy life of semi-mundane security isn't even close to being a reality for me. Like a lot of Americans these days, I'm constanly surfing just ahead of a tidal wave. I'm broke all the time, occasionally flush but mostly not. I couldn't put myself through college these days, much less having a house and mortgage and a wife who loves me, as we put a couple of kids through college, la-dee-dah! I don't expect I'll ever have those things.
Maybe, someday, if I continue to work hard, my marketing skills will consist of something the equivelant of typing "Hello, I'm Garrison Keillor" on my cover letter, but that time is not now. Primarily, I do what I do because the thought of doing the normal 9 to 5 thing is depressing to me. Some people like the routine, the security, but to me it is a killer.
So while you won't find me among the crowd who talk in terms of "bleeding on the page" and "You can't imagine, can't conceive with your mundane mind, the undescribable torment each and every syllable causes me" I also think Garrison goes too far in the opposite direction. The "agony of writing" world is unknown to me, but then so is the life described by Keillor. I know more than a few people who "envy my life," but I've yet to meet the person who wants to trade places.
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Was it Funny?
[Read the article: Making Colbert go away]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know if it was funny. To tell the truth, I was in a state closer to suspense. Would he have the guts to go all the way? Would someone try to put a stop to it? As it neared the end, I felt more like crying with gratitude. If the MSM had shown one one-hundreth of Colbert's fortitude right from the beginning, a lot of American soldiers might still be alive now, thousands more would be unmaimed, tens of thousands more of Iraqis might not be dead, and you can conclude with the usual litany.
Funny? I don't know. But it sure was a cathartic release to the horror with which I've been forced to watch this country the past decade or more.
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I guess I'm just hopelessly old school
[Read the article: Hooray for spandex!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I stopped collecting new comics in 1984/85. They just weren't that much fun anymore. I don't know how it happened, but at some point all the kids who used to enjoy the infinite pleasures of reading comics when they were young turned into artists and writers themselves and decided that they were not going to let go of the genre. They insisted on taking it along into adulthood as "Graphic Novels"; they were going to make high art of what began as wish fulfillment fantasy and hero role playing.
They robbed young kids of the same pleasure that they enjoyed growing up. It's just wrong. If the industry is wondering where the new readers are, it's amazing that they don't consider the most obvious answer; the new readers are to be found among the people who are learning to read. Duh. And those kids are probably looking for some of the same wish-fulfillment fantasies that I was. The idea of being a superhero used to be fun; now, it seems, nothing could suck worse.
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The Key phrase
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh sure, it sounds terrible. But remember it's a Texas-style shit sandwich, mmmm-mmm!