5 ms·

TFA is a comprehensive compendium of cliche tropes, skilfully crafted. What could a similarly resourced effort produce written without tongue in cheek? I’d li

TFA is a comprehensive compendium of cliche tropes, skilfully crafted. What could a similarly resourced effort produce written without tongue in cheek? I’d like to read that.

qsort 5y ago
The question itself is pointless, that's kind of the point of the article (thus the answer is tongue in cheek -- brilliant). Would you also like to read "How to write about America", or "How to write about Europe"?
- coldtea 5y ago
  Yes, I would. And several people have done it succesfully. You can still write about vast heterogenous places (or continents) - and give accurate information about the conditions there, without the cliches.
  - qsort 5y ago
    Of course it can be done, but I wouldn't trust someone who needs a primer on the subject to do it well. Taking large, complex subjects and condensing them in a few chapters is probably one of the greatest challenges a writer can face.
- watwut 5y ago
  I would like to read those. Could be fun.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  US: "140 US legislators, part of elite, far-white, presidential Republican Guard, reportedly plotting to reject tribal elders' choice of opposition leader, Joe Biden, as country's next ruler, which may lead to further ethnic bloodletting in the unstable covid-ravaged nation." Europe: "Firms across sub-Scandinavian Europe are refusing to deliver to addresses in reclusive island kingdom of Britain citing concerns over possible tribal violence as ongoing implementation of AU-brokered Brexit peace agreement raises ethnic tensions in the oil-rich nation." this thread goes on for a while: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1326988782600663047.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1326988782600663047.html
  - g8oz 5y ago
    This is gold.
  - notahacker 5y ago
    Yep. British political journalist Stephen Bush made a point of using that style of writing to update us on events in the US in his newsletter. If we were to use the sort of clichés people actually use about the US and the UK in regular writing, it'd be a fun article to read (and include quite a few stereotypes that are a long way wide of the mark) but probably a touch less patronising than some of the Africa clichés and stereotypes.
- lifefeed 5y ago
  For a similarly cutting advice on how to write about america, here's Garrison Keillor's classic book review, "On the Road Avec M. Lévy" https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/books/review/on-the-road-avec-m-levy.html https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/books/review/on-the-road-... On one hand it's a review of Bernard-Henri Lévy's French travelogue "American Vertigo." On the other hand it's a take down of all the cliches of all these American travelogues that visit the same places and say the same things. Here's a telling bit from the beginning. > You meet Sharon Stone and John Kerry and a woman who once weighed 488 pounds and an obese couple carrying rifles, but there's nobody here whom you recognize. In more than 300 pages, nobody tells a joke. Nobody does much work. Nobody sits and eats and enjoys their food. You've lived all your life in America, never attended a megachurch or a brothel, don't own guns, are non-Amish, and it dawns on you that this is a book about the French. There's no reason for it to exist in English, except as evidence that travel need not be broadening and one should be wary of books with Tocqueville in the title.
rhplus 5y ago
What could a similarly resourced effort produce written without tongue in cheek? The author was Binyavanga Wainaina, who won the Caine Prize for African Writing, so perhaps the list of other winning stories would be a good place to start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caine_Prize https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caine_Prize

TFA is a comprehensive compendium of cliche tropes, skilfully crafted. What could a similarly resourced effort produce written without tongue in cheek? I’d like to read that.

qsort 5y ago

The question itself is pointless, that's kind of the point of the article (thus the answer is tongue in cheek -- brilliant). Would you also like to read "How to write about America", or "How to write about Europe"?

coldtea 5y ago
Yes, I would. And several people have done it succesfully. You can still write about vast heterogenous places (or continents) - and give accurate information about the conditions there, without the cliches.
- qsort 5y ago
  Of course it can be done, but I wouldn't trust someone who needs a primer on the subject to do it well. Taking large, complex subjects and condensing them in a few chapters is probably one of the greatest challenges a writer can face.
watwut 5y ago
I would like to read those. Could be fun.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Cthulhu_ 5y ago
US: "140 US legislators, part of elite, far-white, presidential Republican Guard, reportedly plotting to reject tribal elders' choice of opposition leader, Joe Biden, as country's next ruler, which may lead to further ethnic bloodletting in the unstable covid-ravaged nation." Europe: "Firms across sub-Scandinavian Europe are refusing to deliver to addresses in reclusive island kingdom of Britain citing concerns over possible tribal violence as ongoing implementation of AU-brokered Brexit peace agreement raises ethnic tensions in the oil-rich nation." this thread goes on for a while: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1326988782600663047.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1326988782600663047.html
- g8oz 5y ago
  This is gold.
- notahacker 5y ago
  Yep. British political journalist Stephen Bush made a point of using that style of writing to update us on events in the US in his newsletter. If we were to use the sort of clichés people actually use about the US and the UK in regular writing, it'd be a fun article to read (and include quite a few stereotypes that are a long way wide of the mark) but probably a touch less patronising than some of the Africa clichés and stereotypes.
lifefeed 5y ago
For a similarly cutting advice on how to write about america, here's Garrison Keillor's classic book review, "On the Road Avec M. Lévy" https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/books/review/on-the-road-avec-m-levy.html https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/books/review/on-the-road-... On one hand it's a review of Bernard-Henri Lévy's French travelogue "American Vertigo." On the other hand it's a take down of all the cliches of all these American travelogues that visit the same places and say the same things. Here's a telling bit from the beginning. > You meet Sharon Stone and John Kerry and a woman who once weighed 488 pounds and an obese couple carrying rifles, but there's nobody here whom you recognize. In more than 300 pages, nobody tells a joke. Nobody does much work. Nobody sits and eats and enjoys their food. You've lived all your life in America, never attended a megachurch or a brothel, don't own guns, are non-Amish, and it dawns on you that this is a book about the French. There's no reason for it to exist in English, except as evidence that travel need not be broadening and one should be wary of books with Tocqueville in the title.

rhplus 5y ago

What could a similarly resourced effort produce written without tongue in cheek? The author was Binyavanga Wainaina, who won the Caine Prize for African Writing, so perhaps the list of other winning stories would be a good place to start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caine_Prize https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caine_Prize