KoolBak wrote:Background for post?
Just, I do a lot of reading and I'm always struck by how much really bad writing is out there. This was a problem already in the print age, but the internet has made it far, far worse. It's incredible how many 'writers' have no real feeling for their craft. And yet, sometimes even in the worst pile of dung one finds a diamond ring. A beautiful paragraph, or maybe even a beautiful line or two. Maybe you've noticed, maybe you haven't, but lately I've taken to quoting well-written paragraphs from otherwise lousy articles. I just get so excited when I find some genuine bit of art in what is otherwise a pile of dung. Maybe it's the same thing that motivates yard-sale people.
The piece above wasn't even in the article itself; it was in the comments section below it. The article was some pedestrian bit of bullshit about why love fades. There wasn't anything remotely quotable in it, but I found that lovely gem in the comments.
I suppose it resonates with me because I've back in the dating world for the last couple months. It is a real challenge, trying to make my dull life sound interesting to a stranger. If I was more capable of lying it would be a lot easier, but one thing I am is compulsively honest. I might spin things and embellish a bit, but I never tell an outright lie. Under those circumstances, making my boring blue-collar life sound like something that isn't completely banal and pointless is an enormous challenge indeed. But what's an even greater challenge is staying alert and trying to show interest while they spill out the stories of
their equally banal and pointless lives.