David L Marcus, recounting how a brief article about “therapeutic schools” turned into a book:

As I wrote my nine-paragraph article for U.S. News, I knew I was missing the real story. It was an increasingly familiar feeling. The newspaper and magazine journalism I did seemed superficial, a caricature, a sketch that reflected some editor’s idea of an issue. This time the feeling obsessed me. I decided to write a book about teenagers who get themselves into jams… [p. 32, Brown Alumni Monthly, , “Close to Home,” March/April 2005, pp. 30-45]

We’re seeing discourse assume a more “natural” shape now that the bonds of the physical have been loosened. Encyclopedias have 10x as many articles that tend to be shorter. Topics that cost too much newsprint get spun out at length in electrons. I find this fascinating. [Technorati tag: EverythingIsMiscellaneous]

Categories: Uncategorized dw