The Story of a Canning
Here is both an interesting link and a reason why Twitter is so ridiculous and unnecessary. Dan Baum used to write for The New Yorker. On his recent book tour, people started asking him why he doesn't anymore. The experience inspired him to tell the story of how he was fired. So he started Twittering about it. The results can be seen here in incredibly annoying Twitter fashion. Not only is it posted so you have to read from the bottom up, but what exactly was the point in using this format when he would post several sentences at a time -- like, what's the word, a paragraph? -- in reverse order. Maddening.
Baum put it on his official site in a more traditional style; the style it should have been written in originally.
But it's an interesting story, especially if you're a fan of, employee of, or aspiring employee of a heavy-hitting magazine. It includes links to pitches to the magazine and several stories that the magazine killed. Baum's tone is mostly self-aware, but it seems like his fatal crime was being socially clueless.
Baum put it on his official site in a more traditional style; the style it should have been written in originally.
But it's an interesting story, especially if you're a fan of, employee of, or aspiring employee of a heavy-hitting magazine. It includes links to pitches to the magazine and several stories that the magazine killed. Baum's tone is mostly self-aware, but it seems like his fatal crime was being socially clueless.
posted by JMW at 4:46 PM
2 Comments:
I think the Twittering of this story is more an example of user ignorance than an indictment against the format...though I'm no great fan of Twitter aside from the occasional drunken tweet. I liked the story, though. I love the inside politics of how stories happen (or don't), and I especially love hearing actual discussion of $$$...stuff you rarely get the scoop on.
I see what you mean, Kraig; I should have been more specific. I agree completely about ignorant use in this case. What I meant to say was that this proves the uselessness of Twitter -- if you have something substantive to say, it will likely be more than a sentence and require some writing. Etc.
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