Ouch!
Some tough words for would-be writers from Ayn Rand:
Two comments:
(1) As one who has been relishing some of the 'brilliant and empty' pieces in The New Yorker (I picked up two old copies for 50c a pop--paid for by my "travelling relative"--in a secondhand bookstore), I'm shocked. Surely the magazine would have returned Rand's jab with some right hooks of their own?
(2) Perhaps the fact that Rand never actually wrote the book quoted above goes some way toward explaining. Rand gave a series of talks to a small group and a devotee decided to transcribe and publish the talks after her death. Interesting editorial policy to leave in swideswipes at big targets like The New Yorker.
Nonetheless, so far the book is a great read.
If you have nothing new to say, no matter how brilliantly you can say it, do not do it. An article stands on its subject and theme. Those "brilliant" essays that say nothing (which The New Yorker is full of) are mere finger exercises and a waste of developed style (The Art of Nonfiction, p. 15).Tell us what you really think, Ayn.
Two comments:
(1) As one who has been relishing some of the 'brilliant and empty' pieces in The New Yorker (I picked up two old copies for 50c a pop--paid for by my "travelling relative"--in a secondhand bookstore), I'm shocked. Surely the magazine would have returned Rand's jab with some right hooks of their own?
(2) Perhaps the fact that Rand never actually wrote the book quoted above goes some way toward explaining. Rand gave a series of talks to a small group and a devotee decided to transcribe and publish the talks after her death. Interesting editorial policy to leave in swideswipes at big targets like The New Yorker.
Nonetheless, so far the book is a great read.
posted by Sauntering Walker at 9:25 PM
3 Comments:
Where does that leave bloggers Chris? I have just joined the ranks but suspect that my blog will rate neither as brilliant nor original. Hopefully blogging is not held to such lofty standards. Few, you would think, this august journal excepted, would survive.
A late response to your comment, Jeff. Good question. The World Wide Web, blogs and the like didn't exist when Rand gave her talks, so her scathing comments were directed at people writing for print publications. However, had she lived, I'm sure she would have been horrified at the unoriginal and poorly written content that clogs cyberspace.
Though I take comfort in the fact that Rand was a tough-minded Russian who wrote long books on epistemology (the phrase psycho-epistemology occurs repeatedly in the work I'm reading -- I'm not sure what it means). I'm not too worried if I can't consistently meet the standards of someone of her pedigree.
Chris
Maybe blogging is more like a conversation than a publication.
Take everyday conversation. I think there's a place for 'pointless' topics like the weather, not in the content but in demonstrating that the people involved want to relate to each other. The content of the conversation (the weather) isn't the content being communicated (I want to relate with you).
Maybe blogging - although typographic in form - is more conversational (& relational) than print media? Does this legitimise the desire to talk without really having anything to say?
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