it’s like reading an
aggressively abridged book
soulless messy gist
Adapted from the line, “It’s like reading an aggressively abridged novel in which every adjective has been deleted and blackberry jam smudged across parts of every other page. You get the gist, but in a soulless, messy fashion.”
This line appeared in Frank Bruni’s For the Love of Sentences section of Mr. Bruni’s Opinion Piece, Chris Christie Is Doing Something Very, Very Important in the New York Times on June 21, 2023.
According to his writer blurb in the NYT, Mr. Bruni is a professor of journalism and public policy at Duke University, the author of the book “The Beauty of Dusk” and a contributing Opinion writer. He writes a weekly email newsletter.
I liked this a lot more before I got to the Duke part.
Like almost every house I have been in growing up, my house was filled with the Reader’s Digest Condensed books.
They looked nice on the shelf.
I even opened them up on occasion and read some of the books.
As I kid I understood condensed orange juice.
Though to this DAY, I am mystified that for my ENTIRE life, orange juice and lemonade comes in the same size can but orange juice needs three cans of water while lemonade needs 4 and 1/3 cans of water.
First I wondered why lemonade made so much more juice.
Then I wondered what was wrong with the lemonade.
Then, over the years, I wondered why no scientist ever came up with a condensed version of lemonade that also needed three cans of water.
I new of condensed milk.
How were books condensed?
And once condensed, how were these Reader’s Digest volumes printed and distributed.
And WHY were so many made.
In the age of ZOOM and remote TV News interviews nothing makes me discount any expert’s expertise faster than a backdrop of a book case … filled with Reader’s Digest condensed books.
It might not have happened but in my mind there is a story about HL Mencken and Reader’s Digest.
According to the story, Mr. Mencken was told about the plan to take the best parts of all the stories in newspapers and magazines and republished these ‘best parts’ or ‘digested parts’ in a single magazine.
Mr. Mencken is reported to have said something along the lines of, “No one ever went broke underestimating the American intellect.”
As I watch TV today and the commercials roll by for dog insurance and dog DNA and wonder drugs I cannot pronounce for ailments I have never heard of, I can vouch for the statement’s accuracy if not is provenance.
So much of life today seems to be aggressively abridged.
It is has been rendered soulless and messy but you get the gist.
No Haiku For You 