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I always wonder when reading essays like this, why do authors start them off with little stories meant to put down their readers. Why would you spin me the yarn
by mariusor 4y ago
I always wonder when reading essays like this, why do authors start them off with little stories meant to put down their readers. Why would you spin me the yarn of being this uncultured, self-absorbed modern man that can't be bothered to browse a bookshop's shelves unless some arcane signal penetrates all the way down through their dulled intellect. Even if I'd be that person, reminding me of it will make me go read through the rest in an adversarial way at best, or I'll make me stop reading it all together.
- dmux 4y agoThe first couple of paragraphs of the article are a nod to the opening of Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveler."
- mariusor 4y agoI had to go back to double check, and indeed there's the "talking to your reader" device used in both places, however - and it could be just my translation - but I didn't see the same condescension in Calvino's words. They were evoking - to me at least - the joy and anticipation a reader gets when starting a new, mouth-watering novel. Not the sedation of a modern life under existential depression. Maybe that's what the author wants to tell us, a contrast between the two, but I feel like they could have done that in other ways than at my expense as their reader.