On Bennet's “I Have Had It With Long-Form Journalism”

... via Sullivan, who is attempting to revive it.

I'm not being fair to Atlantic's James Bennet by quoting only these lines, but you can read his entire piece here: "Reader, do you feel enticed to plunge into a story by the distinction that it is long? Or does your heart sink just a little?"

Honestly? I ignore it, for two reasons. I find reading anything "long" on a computer screen physically taxing, and if I'm interested enough in a subject to explore it in "long-form" magazine depth, I'd just as soon read a book on it. That's just my preference, or prejudice. I've never been a magazine reader. Give me books.

As an online writer, I will however confess this shortcoming of blogging, versus not long-form journalism, but merely the older, more standard column length of roughly 800 words: one isn't pressed to "go on" after a couple or three hundred words, though pressing often unearths some undiscovered thought. When I once maintained a self-imposed standard of no less than 800, my writing tended to take interesting turns (to me, anyway) which I hadn't anticipated in the first paragraph.  

I miss that. But I won't return to it, for the rather straightforward reason that online readers won't abide it. This is the Age of Google, the quick hit, the synopsis, the punch, whatever one wishes to call it. I don't prefer it that way, but I don't make the cultural rules.

And perhaps it's not all bad. It's worth recalling that Lincoln's most memorable, most influential speech contained only 272 words. A lesser writer would have poured at least a solid 800 into commemorating the Battle of Gettysburg and another few thousand into urging his countrymen on to a full and righteous victory. Brevity, done right, can pack a far greater punch.

 

Comments

[Charlieford]

What I miss is editors.

PS Not a lot of Lincolns out there, you know . . .

[Peter G]

I'd read it. If you feel the need to write a longer article I will read it. I will do so because you have already demonstrated an appropriate economy of words. And while I appreciate and prize that ability in writers sometimes relating disparate subjects like politics,history and economics requires a longer piece. Mind you a blog such as this allows one to shape a discussion with ones readers and oneself in a completely different way that no magazine article ever could.
And, just a suggestion, you should maybe pause in reading books and write one.

[AnneJ]

Short or long doesn't matter to me. I just thoroughly enjoy your work.