In an age in which our attention spans have been reduced to those of gnats--or is it cats?--well, either way, they're short. Really short. After all, so much to read, so little time to do it, right? So, anyway . . . where was I? (Sorry. Got distracted.)
At a time when our attention spans have shrunk like cheap T-shirts in the wash--what a nice metaphor--um, yeah. Shall we try again?
These days, people want to get into a book fast. They want to read it fast and get on to the next one, because their attention spans are as tiny as gnats--there's the gnat metaphor! I knew I could conjure it up. Ah, good. So, as I was saying . . .
It's nice to know there's one staunch proponent out there of the idea that a long novel is not necessarily a bad thing to read from time to time. That, truly, reading for pleasure is about the journey and not the destination. That reading is not a competitive sport in which the one who reads the most books wins.
I've read WAR AND PEACE. It was a great book--really! Well worth the two and a half months it took.
A great piece of literature is a wonderful thing. But even I haven't worked up the energy to tackle this one yet. Maybe someday.
(If anyone has read David Foster Wallace's magnum opus, please feel free to comment on it. Thumbs up or down?)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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2 comments:
I haven't read the David Foster Wallace, but some of my favorite reads do tend to be awfully long. I don't know what it means, but these are all old or classic books. These days when a book is very long--Lionel Shriver's The Birthday World or some of Stephen King's recent ones come to mind--I tend to think they might've benefited from some cutting. It's not that I don't still love the pace of a longer book, so I'm not sure why I have this reaction.
Yeah, there are a few books (not to mention movies) these days that could benefit from good editing. Unfortunately, a lot of established authors' work (I shall mention no names) seems to be released almost unedited.
But then, most editors are more concerned now with acquisitions and marketing than actual editing, as I understand it. So it goes.
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