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155 sats \ 2 replies \ @Scoresby 7h \ on: Writing is hostile the_stacker_muse

This is adjacent to something I've been thinking about for a while:

All writing is advertising.

I even have a post I've drafted about it. I differ with Didion in that I'm not so convinced that it's hostile (at least it's not overtly so). Perhaps more like seduction. Not all seduction is hostile.

I'm closer to that last part: "tricking the reader into listening to the dream." Writers are tricksy people.

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102 sats \ 1 reply \ @billytheked OP 5h

To stick with the analogy, tricks can be either hostile or good-natured, I think. I might prefer, when reading, to be in on the trick, but I cannot always have it that way. At least, I'd like to know the trick is being done in good spirit, even if I am not, and is not being made at my expense. Sometimes--I'd even say, often--advertising is done at the audience's expense.

I just finished reading a book whose tricks I didn't enjoy. I plan to write a review about it.

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 5h

But if you are in on the trick, there aren't any surprises. and surprises are one lovely thing of stories. so there must be some amount of the reader still being willing to have the trick played on them.

Looking forward to your review.

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