Friday, December 04, 2009

Important, but Uninteresting

Over on Bloggingheads, they are talking about Elizabeth Whalen's 8000 word article on he rather ordinary, happy marriage, in the upcoming New York Times Magazine. Ann Althouse makes this interesting point:

Is writing about an ordinary marriage, an interesting writing project? It may be a wonderful experience to have, but so is sleeping all night, and there's nothing to write.


So true. Reading the news it's good to remember that item frequencies are not proportional to the importance in our everyday lives. As someone once said: 'Literature is mostly about sex and a little about having children. Life is the other way around.'

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When news is defined not as dog bites man, but man bites dog, it's guaranteed not to accurately inform what goes on in the world.

Anonymous said...

"Literature is mostly about sex and a little about having children. Life is the other way around."

Classic.

Anonymous said...

Gee, this kinda makes my man bites dog argument moot:

WELLINGTON, New Zealand —
Tiger Woods' caddie says he supports his boss while the world's No. 1 golfer copes with allegations of extramarital affairs.