Richer election stories
During the interminable election night coverage in November, I kept wishing for coverage of issues other than the Presidential race. What was happening in my home state of Montana? For that matter, what was happening in my former state of Massachusetts, or in Oregon, Colorado, or Mississippi? Who would be their governors and legislators, what would be their ballot-initiated laws?
Instead we got an endless map of blue and red, and endless discussions of DC blowhards "analyzing" the map.
Sure it was an important election, but as a story we all wanted to unfold in real time, it was slow going. As Walter Kirn shows here (thanks to David Crisp for the link), the littler stories were actually much more interesting. I find Kirn's take especially interesting because it's about Montana, but hey, it was published in the NYT Magazine and thus read across the country. I'd wager you could tell similarly interesting stories about any state in the union. And such little set pieces would have been a welcome respite from dully endless map on election night.
I hope Walter Kirn's next novel comes out before the next election night. I'd like to spend the evening reading it instead of watching TV.
Join the discussion at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johnclaytonoutreach/
Instead we got an endless map of blue and red, and endless discussions of DC blowhards "analyzing" the map.
Sure it was an important election, but as a story we all wanted to unfold in real time, it was slow going. As Walter Kirn shows here (thanks to David Crisp for the link), the littler stories were actually much more interesting. I find Kirn's take especially interesting because it's about Montana, but hey, it was published in the NYT Magazine and thus read across the country. I'd wager you could tell similarly interesting stories about any state in the union. And such little set pieces would have been a welcome respite from dully endless map on election night.
I hope Walter Kirn's next novel comes out before the next election night. I'd like to spend the evening reading it instead of watching TV.
Join the discussion at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johnclaytonoutreach/
