THE STORY SO FAR: PART 193

THEMOTH.ORG—TALES OF THE MOTH—REPRESENTS THE HUMAN CONDITION, AND THE POWER OF RADIO, AT THEIR FINEST.

IF YOU ARE NOT MOVED BY SUCH TRUE STORIES, YOU ARE MADE OF STONE

I commented some time ago that, as I have been getting older—within the limits of being a member of a different sex—I have been turning into my much loved grandmother in terms of beliefs and lifestyle. Would it were so, in many ways, because she was an admirable human being with a big heart, but I fear my flaws exceed hers.

Nonetheless, there are similarities to our lifestyles—quite a few, in fact—apart from the fact that we both lived, or live, alone. One of them is that we both share (or shared) a passion for the radio. It’s informative, companionable, thoroughly entertaining, and remarkably inexpensive. Here I am referring to NPR in its various forms—not corporate radio (which has pretty much trashed a great medium).

One of the most impressive programs is TALES OF THE MOTH. These consist of nothing more that a single person telling a true story from their own experiences to a small audience—which is then recorded and transmitted. Many are extremely funny. Some are desperately sad. All are moving.

Stories are innate to the human condition. They give us identity, make us laugh—and give us hope. TALES OF THE MOTH represents the zenith of storytelling.

They make me proud to be a teller of stories, part of a fraternity that may just be—though the competition is formidable—the oldest profession.

 

 

THE STORY SO FAR: PART 166.

HOW LONG SHOULD A BOOK BE?

Most people have forgotten the Korean War. Nonetheless, it fascinated me even though I was only six when it started in 1950. It finished—more or less—in  1953, though a full peace treaty has never been signed. Given that North Korea is now a nuclear power, that is somewhat disturbing.

While scouring the school library, I ran across an article in the National Geographic about it, which, amongst other things, showed how the Koreans could carry heavy weights on their backs by using a frame.

Why don’t we do that, I wondered?

And, of course, now we do—but it was an early lesson that the West was not the repository of all wisdom (which, essentially, was the kind of thing I was originally taught). I was an early skeptic because attitudes, and what I could see and read, did not seem to match.

There is a nice story about the Korean War I have long remembered. There were press briefings every day, and a constant theme was that a particular position in the U.N. lines—it would vary—had been attacked by “hordes of Chinese.” This phrase became part of the daily ritual until finally one of the journalists stood up and asked: “How many Chinese to a horde?”

The effect of this question was to create absolute confusion because, needless to say, there was no credible answer. It remains one of my favorite lines.

One used to be able to be more precise when talking about a book. A novella used to be about 30,000 words long. A novel started at about 60,000 words—and a classic big thriller (the kind of book I love and write) came in at 120,000 words plus and could easily be 160,000. Assuming a talented author, this substantial heft guaranteed, in my eyes, a really good read.

Apparently, all of that is changing. A recent article by Michael Lewin in Book Publishing today states that:

“Today, however, the closing of the American mind has given way to the collapse of the American attention span thanks to texting, Facebook and Twitter. Neither authors nor readers seek size from their books.”

“If you are writing a business book to brand yourself as an expert in your field, keep it under 50,000 words… You fiction writers should take heed as well; 90,000 is the new optimum maximum length, down from 50,000 words just a few years ago.”

I guess that means I’ll only have to do half the work in future. Assuming I believe that—which I don’t—how do I feel about the supposed demise of the really good read read?

Profoundly sad, if you really want to know. I guess reading WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy—which I loved—when I was 13 had a lasting impact on me.

Tolstoy is illustrated above.

 

 

 

IN SEARCH OF THE NEW FRAMERS – THOSE WHO KNOW HOW TO FRAME THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeMining the Digisphere Department 
I’m continuing to squirrel away on work to do with marketing my books via the Kindle (to be followed by print) but the more time I spend in the DIGISPHERE - which I define as Internet + Computer Power + (a new wave of brilliant) Software + Mindset - the more I am convinced that we don’t as yet fully appreciate this extraordinary resource we have at our disposal. It’s much more than a giant encyclopedia crossed with instant communications technologies and leavened with multimedia entertainment capabilities. It’s a synergistic environment. The totality is vastly more powerful than the sum of its parts. It is also – both currently and potentially – a problem solving tool of unprecedented power and application.

But are we using it this way? My general sense is that we’re using it tactically to increasingly great effect – sometimes for good and sometimes to our detriment - but we’re not yet using it adequately to get to grips with our more fundamental problems. Yet I am convinced that the answers are out there and that with the aid of the digisphere, we can find them.

This viewpoint leads me to a number of conclusions: 

• We are neither asking the right questions nor framing the questions correctly. We are letting our various ideologies get in the way of our reasoning to a degree which is downright frightening.
• We haven’t given nearly enough thought to the fact the availability of the digisphere means we need to rethink how we do just about everything and particularly how we work. 
• We are absolutely failing to appreciate the sheer power of what we have at our disposal together with the fact that this power and its related capabilities is increasing geometrically. 
• We are in serious danger of letting this power be controlled by special interests to the detriment of democracy and the public good. 
• We need to change the Constitution to deal with this. NOTE: I’ll be developing these thoughts in a separate paper, but my essential point is that most of the big problems we are facing only exist because we are not bothering to solve them. They are no longer intractable. Our current addiction to ideologies – so much easier than thinking - may be an exception. 

Department of Incredibly Ingenious Solutions 
Want the font of your choice to appear in every just as you intended? Check out WebInk http://www.extensis.com/en/WebINK/index.jsp and drool. Being of a graphic turn of mind, I’ve been looking for something like this for some time.

Department of People Who Really Do Seem To Know What They Are Doing 
LinkedIn is a professional network made of some 80 million of the sort of people it tends to be advantageous to network with. It’s business oriented rather than social and, based upon my experience so far, surprisingly effective. However, I would have made much more progress if I had had a guide because it’s not entirely clear at first – or even later on - how everything works. Enter a lady with the rather glamorous name of Kristina Jaramillo who really does seem to know which fork one should use (metaphorically speaking) when in such illustrious company. - Kristina@getlinkedinhelp.com  and http://www.GetLinkedInHelp.com Her phone number is 609-306-6205

Department of Really Good Thrillers 
I hate to boast but since self-promotion is the American Way and this is my blog, I probably should. Let me compromise by quoting Cosmopolitan on Games Of the Hangman:

“The hunt for the Hangman drives the plot with all the urgency of the Indy 500, but the author never sacrifices character to action – a rare grace in this genre… A truly captivating, atmospheric, un-putdownable read.”

The new books will be Kindled very soon – and the wait will be worth it.