TITLE: Takedown
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: February 19, 2011  9:55 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
As a blogger who sometimes worries that I am a person
you've never heard of, "writing uninterestingly about
the unexceptional", and that other people have already
written about whatever I have to say, only better, I
really enjoyed William Zinsser's recent
<A HREF="http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-right-to-write/">
   takedown of a New York Times Book Review editor</A>
on the subject of writing memoirs.  His paragraph that
starts

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
Sorry to be so harsh, but I don't like people telling
other people they shouldn't write about their life.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

and ends

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
The Times can use its space more helpfully than by
allowing a critic to hyperventilate on an exhausted
subject.  We don't have that many trees left.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

is one of my favorite paragraphs in recent memory.
I admit a juvenile fondness for hoisting someone with
his own petard, and Zinsser does so masterfully.

One of the great beauties of the web is that anyone
can write and publish.  Readers choose to give their
attention to the work that matters to them.  No trees
are harmed along the way.

In reading and writing together, we can all become
better writers --
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2009-04.html#e2009-04-06T02_05_06.htm">
   and better thinkers</A>.

~~~~

I recommended Zinsser's <EM>On Writing Well</EM>,
among several other books, in an earlier entry on
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2005-04.html#e2005-04-01T09_07_12.htm">
   reading to write</A>.
It remains at the top of my suggested reading list.
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