Monday, April 30, 2007
Great Writing
I got a comment from Borax on my post about Minnesota's Basic Skills Tests that raises a very good question. Seems Borax doesn't have a lot of faith in the literary quality displayed by popular writers. Borax writes,
"They're famous because of their accessability, readability, flow, and entertainment, not because of their talent as writers. The average person doesn't know jack about good writing, which is why there's little correlation between great writing and popularity."
I rather think that readability, flow, and entertainment are among the qualities of good writing, although they certainly aren't the only ones. How would you define good or great writing? What attracts you to someone's literary efforts?
"They're famous because of their accessability, readability, flow, and entertainment, not because of their talent as writers. The average person doesn't know jack about good writing, which is why there's little correlation between great writing and popularity."
I rather think that readability, flow, and entertainment are among the qualities of good writing, although they certainly aren't the only ones. How would you define good or great writing? What attracts you to someone's literary efforts?
Labels: blog, comments, talent, writing
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Status Upgrade from Interesting to Truly Interesting
I was reading Moby's blog the other day and wanted to comment on his posts. He seems like a pretty liberal and interesting guy, but there's no way to comment directly to him because he's famous and probably doesn't want to deal with a bunch of cuckoo-loos. (You can post to the message boards, which Moby says he reads, but they tend to degenerate into troll fights and wander off topic.) Then, I got to thinking about some of the other blogs I read, notably Seth Godin's and Neil Gaiman's, and how they don't have their comments enabled. It seems that when one reaches the status of Truly Interesting Human Being (as opposed to Interesting Human Being), one gets flooded with comments and no longer has time to read or respond to them. There goes the commenting feature. Neil and Seth both accept email, though. Neil is forthright in saying that he gets so much email that he can't answer it all and has a backlog of over 1,000. Seth, so far, has responded to every email I've sent (I don't send many - no need to inundate him), albeit his responses are very short. He's a busy guy, so this makes sense, and, frankly, I find it incredible that he has time to respond even this much. It just shows that he is as remarkable as his purple cow.
So, now I'm wondering: At what point does one upgrade from Interesting Human Being to Truly Interesting Human Being such that they have to turn off their commenting feature and can no longer respond personally to people?
So, now I'm wondering: At what point does one upgrade from Interesting Human Being to Truly Interesting Human Being such that they have to turn off their commenting feature and can no longer respond personally to people?
Labels: blog, comments, cuckoo-loos, email, human being, moby, neil gaiman, purple cow, seth godin, status, trolls
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Comments, please!
I discovered last night that I had a few more blog readers than I thought. Incredibly cool! I really appreciate all of you readers out there & am glad you make the time to drop by. I also found out that some of my readers want to leave comments, but don't seem to be able to. I've checked all my comment posting settings, which I've tried to keep as open as possible, and found that they are set to accept comments from everyone, whether you have a Blogger or Google account or not. I'd like to check this to be sure it's working, so for those of you reading, can you send a brief comment (one word will do) to see if it posts? If you don't have a Blogger or Google account, try to send a message via the Anonymous setting. If it doesn't post & you know one of my email addresses, drop me a line and let me know. Thanks much! :)
Oops! I forgot. I have a link to my blog email account along the lefthand column of the blog. Just scroll down 'til you see the word "Email" in gray. When you roll over it with the arrow, it'll turn green. Just click the link & send an email if your comment doesn't go through. Ta-ta!
Oops! I forgot. I have a link to my blog email account along the lefthand column of the blog. Just scroll down 'til you see the word "Email" in gray. When you roll over it with the arrow, it'll turn green. Just click the link & send an email if your comment doesn't go through. Ta-ta!
Labels: blog, blogger, comments, google, readers
