05 May 2008
Dear Reader: I don't worry about you
Yes, in the church of American journalism, it's heresy akin to the Albigensian. But for a writer, readers shouldn't even enter the equation. Why? Because worrying about what readers will want is an editor's big, honkin', pointless mind-game. Because what a "reader" wants from art is what anyone wants from art ... some reasonable explanation for the madness that surrounds us. The art of writing -- hell, the art of anything -- is what's conceived, nurtured and given life in the artist's head, then through her hands and onto paper, where it's cradled and groomed and polished till it blinds with its gleam. If that jewel refracts the universal, readers will reach for it with both hands and treasure it forever. If that jewel really is just a lump of coal, well, readers will burn it for heat, and then it will be gone. The Universal. That's what it's about. Readers want it. And, frankly, so do I. ...
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1 comment:
Right – that way lies confirmation bias (i recall a story at the end of a link in one of your posts regarding journalists having to report to sales managers. ugh). My sense of what art is/does/should do is less cut and dried than what you describe here, but viz. journalism I think of a mandate to inform – and persuade, if the writer feels that in general the readership has got it wrong. Perhaps the universal is part of that determination?
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