Sunday, March 07, 2010
The End of the Long Article?
Are we witnessing the demise of the long magazine or newspaper article? Whereas novels are, if anything, getting longer and longer (farewell Reader's Digest!) and are not as far as I know proving short of an audience, the same cannot be said for magazines and newspapers. On many occasions, I have to make a conscious effort to read through to the end of even the' most interesting article. I think editors and publishers have cottoned on to this.
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Greetings Barnaby.
ReplyDeleteTime or lack of it may explain the inability to read lengthy articles.
Now that I commute to work on London Underground's District Line which takes over 30 minutes from Wimbledon to trundle to Victoria compared with the few minutes by SWTrain to Vauxhall (day job office is equidistant from Victoria and Vauxhall) reading the long articles in the Sunday Observer's Review section on the Monday commute is usually very worthwhile. Previously time constraints meant that I threw out the Review without even opening let alone reading it.
Is saving time really always beneficial?
Thanks for your comment, Jerry. I realise that the question is much more complex than my (short!) treatment of it, but I was intrigued by this article http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/cut-this-story/7823/
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, why do you no longer take the SW train? Was it a conscious decision on your part to give you more time to read?
Greetings Barnaby
ReplyDeleteTX for the link to that interesting article. I'm not sure that I agree with its point about "context" essentially being pseudo.
We saw "The Young Victoria" on DVD yesterday. Without the director giving the context including flash back to a year earlier the film would not have been anything like as good and comprehensible as it was. Contextualising enabled me to learn a little history too. The same often applies to other media imho.
Free public transport in London once you turn 60, is 24 hours on the (municipally owned) London Underground, but only from 9:30am on the (privately owned) SWTrains. I need to arrive at the office early each morning so I now commute in by Underground and home by SWTrains saving £1000s pa - the Freedom pass is not means tested either.