While I enjoyed and agreed with much of the article, there is a disconnect between the message and its accessibility. It is a very common problem, one I struggle with myself in my writing. How can I express myself in a vocabulary that will reach as many people as possible, or is that an impossibility? I know that for all sorts of reasons there is no way to reach everybody. Hell, most people don't read anything but what they see on social media. If we write in a way that only speaks to the 'highly educated,' are our efforts anything more than 'intellectual masturbation?' Again, I ask this as someone who also struggles with the issue. For myself, I am beginning to think I need to separate my writing life and whatever conversations I can have with 'ordinary folks.'
Hi... Ordinary or extraordinary folks, at this small a scale, one is mostly writing for a tiny audience and most often about self-clarity and exploration.
This is a wonderful synthesis of so many issues all pointing to the uniqueness of what is today and the inevitable transition to what comes next. Regarding John Stuckey's comment, Marcel Duchamps famously insisted that the ideal audience is one that comes 50 to 100 years after your death; they will understand your work in your posting, Counter, much more than today's audience. But with the unfolding climate disaster we'd better shorten that to 5 to 10 years after your death...
While I enjoyed and agreed with much of the article, there is a disconnect between the message and its accessibility. It is a very common problem, one I struggle with myself in my writing. How can I express myself in a vocabulary that will reach as many people as possible, or is that an impossibility? I know that for all sorts of reasons there is no way to reach everybody. Hell, most people don't read anything but what they see on social media. If we write in a way that only speaks to the 'highly educated,' are our efforts anything more than 'intellectual masturbation?' Again, I ask this as someone who also struggles with the issue. For myself, I am beginning to think I need to separate my writing life and whatever conversations I can have with 'ordinary folks.'
Hi... Ordinary or extraordinary folks, at this small a scale, one is mostly writing for a tiny audience and most often about self-clarity and exploration.
Yeah, I get that. It helps me think things through, too.
This is a wonderful synthesis of so many issues all pointing to the uniqueness of what is today and the inevitable transition to what comes next. Regarding John Stuckey's comment, Marcel Duchamps famously insisted that the ideal audience is one that comes 50 to 100 years after your death; they will understand your work in your posting, Counter, much more than today's audience. But with the unfolding climate disaster we'd better shorten that to 5 to 10 years after your death...