The Reminder

I had a coffee meeting the other morning with a close writer/editor friend. It was time to catch up, and also kick around some ideas for a couple of articles we'd be writing over the next week. We also commiserated about the business of writing, and how challenging it can be to match our enthusiasm for it to the publications that demonstrate some interest in what words can describe. So many pictures these days, so little content. And let me tell you, it's particularly bad with design mags.

But anytime you plead the case for good writing, eyes glaze over. People seem to feel that they should care about it, but they can't muster much passion for the cause.  And when you find yourself proselytising to folks who neither know, nor care about, the difference between "your" and "you're," exhaustion and annoyance take hold quickly.

Sometimes it gets depressing to the point where I start questioning if I'm just overestimating my importance and abilities, or if anyone cares about them. I don't mean to suck my thumb; I just pride myself on possessing reasonably good skill at description, and on at least trying to write as much for the reader's entertainment as for my own.

But is anyone reading?

Here is Australia, Fairfax Media, publisher of both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, our two largest broadsheet newspapers, has announced the impending layoff of 1900 employees, and an anticipated shift to a tabloid format. 20% of those dismissed will come from editorial staff. Not enough customers.

Having finished our coffees, we walked back to my friend's office where I picked up a recently-published issue of a design magazine that I will leave unnamed. Later, I took my seat on the tram and flicked randomly through the pages, stopping halfway through an article about the design of a new corporate headquarters in Sydney. The author had written:

"Clear imageability assists us to orientate ourselves, and find our way about. Psychologically we feel more comfortable in a city with legibility."

I couldn't have written a less legible sentence. And I felt glad I could recognise that.