4 ms·

I really tried to read this, but it was so bad I wonder if it was generated by a script. The whole thing was pointless minutiae. Surely the author was getting

by influx 7y ago

I really tried to read this, but it was so bad I wonder if it was generated by a script. The whole thing was pointless minutiae. Surely the author was getting paid by the word.

annuate 7y ago
Perhaps getting paid by the word is too extreme, but I also felt the same way. Enough so to finally have me create an account to leave a comment similar to what you have just said.
thrower123 7y ago
It's par for the course for this kind of outlet. "Literary" magazines like Paris Review and the New Yorker are almost always like this, flowery and baroque and overwrought, signifying nothing.
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  Well... they're the literary version of "it's the journey, not the destination". They're for people who have more time than they have things to fill it, so something that takes time to go on a journey are perfect for them. If you have more to read than you have time, it drives you crazy. "Just make your point, already!" I suspect that many of us here are not part of their target audience.
chadcmulligan 7y ago
I agree these "literary" things can be hard to read, but try treating the words as a stream of consciousness designed to evoke a feeling rather than say a usual newspaper article to say something concrete. I regard literary works as an art form to be experienced much the same as you'd experience a painting in a gallery, and I think thats how they are meant to be interpreted. Like picking a random phrase from the article "including the sandpipers whose murmurous flocks contain more than a little of the transcendental" - murmorous flocks evokes a large number of birds making a noise, the art is in the use of words to evoke a feeling and a picture. I think its designed to be read more slowly and thought about a lot more than you would a usual article - an experience to be savoured with a fine wine on a Sunday afternoon, rather than something to read on the way to work on the train.

by influx 7y ago

I really tried to read this, but it was so bad I wonder if it was generated by a script. The whole thing was pointless minutiae. Surely the author was getting paid by the word.

annuate 7y ago

Perhaps getting paid by the word is too extreme, but I also felt the same way. Enough so to finally have me create an account to leave a comment similar to what you have just said.

thrower123 7y ago

It's par for the course for this kind of outlet. "Literary" magazines like Paris Review and the New Yorker are almost always like this, flowery and baroque and overwrought, signifying nothing.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
Well... they're the literary version of "it's the journey, not the destination". They're for people who have more time than they have things to fill it, so something that takes time to go on a journey are perfect for them. If you have more to read than you have time, it drives you crazy. "Just make your point, already!" I suspect that many of us here are not part of their target audience.

chadcmulligan 7y ago

I agree these "literary" things can be hard to read, but try treating the words as a stream of consciousness designed to evoke a feeling rather than say a usual newspaper article to say something concrete. I regard literary works as an art form to be experienced much the same as you'd experience a painting in a gallery, and I think thats how they are meant to be interpreted. Like picking a random phrase from the article "including the sandpipers whose murmurous flocks contain more than a little of the transcendental" - murmorous flocks evokes a large number of birds making a noise, the art is in the use of words to evoke a feeling and a picture. I think its designed to be read more slowly and thought about a lot more than you would a usual article - an experience to be savoured with a fine wine on a Sunday afternoon, rather than something to read on the way to work on the train.