Second post in and I’m already breaking the longform rule, alas.
I just wanted to address some of the purpose of the blog in general and do something I hadn’t previously thought to do.
While this is definitely a place to showcase longform work specifically to the sort of people who are interested in longform work (it’s almost antithetical to the spirit of the internet to write anything over 1000 words but I can’t be the only dude out there that reads the massive pieces that get posted on Slate, Salon, The New Yorker, etc.), it’s also a kind of workshop to put something up, critique, edit, and mess with.
First I’d like to thank everybody for their feedback so far. It’s really cool that people are reading and if I can keep putting stuff out there it’s comforting to know that people will check it out.
For posterity’s sake, there were some negative criticisms of Bonecrusher Pete that were levelled, and it’s important that they be voiced here for the purpose of the blog. Travis said (and I’m paraphrasing here) that he would have liked to have the concept of leaving the workaday life to become a barbarian to be fleshed out a little bit more. The other one is, I feel, an aesthetic objection, but one that’s valid nonetheless. He put forth that the first part was really adolescent/pulp fantasy (which was intended) and that he feels that’s a mode of expression that isn’t even really valuable to poke fun at. While I’m not necessarily inclined to agree, it’s possible that it could have been done better.
Finally, given that a workshop environment is as much about community as anything, I’m happy to welcome contributions. If you write anything that exceeds about 1000 words drop me a line or (if you don’t have the e-mail address), post a comment. Crossposting is cool too, if you’ve already put something up elsewhere! Be prepared for criticism, but you may find out that people like bits you hadn’t even considered! If you don’t like something about a piece, or you do, feel free to comment. Basically anything will be admitted so long as it’s not pure hatorade without any examples. It sucks doesn’t help anybody.
Post a Comment