"'Strictly speaking ... readers aren't what they used to be ... so being a writer isn't what it used to be.' J.F. Powers" [1] pg100 "We are all suckers for sta

"'Strictly speaking ... readers aren't what they used to be ... so being a writer isn't what it used to be.' J.F. Powers" [1] pg100 "We are all suckers for statements about culture - which is not surprising when culture at first glance seems so balefully homogenous, but upon closer inspection, is so unappealingly atomized. A new angle is invariably more charismatic, more assimilable, handier in every way than the work which presumably springs from it." [1] pg20 I can't lay my hands on the exact quote but in [1] the author makes an point in the context of inflation (of ideas, and everything American): when no idea is worth a anything the only thing to do in this environment is come up with an even more seriously hyped idea I presume to sooth that gnawing sense of emptiness. This feedback loop ensures each idea is inflated keeping the inflation of ideas going and thus cheapening each idea. One unintended result in my view is paranoia, alienation, conspiracy that comes from atomization which we see in spades nowadays. This also has strong connections to another HN post in the top 50 stories on creative management. Way underneath the original article is something far deeper than I think [1] sunk his teeth into way back in 1984. The BBG editor is struggling with how to deal with the reader who deals with zillions of possible stories and how BBG will add value for time the reader will spend. The editor's stance is but only the highest ceiling on a much deeper problem. Gents, the reader has changed. And too much of today's culture coddles him (us, me) as an anxiety ridden middle-class person trying to fight the good fight. Well, I am not so generous. A lot of readers are lazy. A lot of readers want meaning handed to them because getting experience and ideas are becoming separate islands. In Reddit Pro Life Tips format: 99.9% of what you need to know you're gonna have to learn yourself. I close with a quote from the forward in [1]: "'No longer is it, 'When I hear the word Culture, I reach for my revolver.' We are permitted instead, 'Culture sits so well in my pock that whenever I hear the world "thought" I smile' Phillip Sollers" [1] [1] Salmagundi "The Post-Modern Aura" Charles Newman No.63-64 Spring-Summer 1984