The Discerning Reader [Writing]

"As newspapers and magazines become more obsessed with shorter, breezier stories and visual gimmickry, readers adopt that sensibility as normalcy. We are losing the ability to understand anything that's even vaguely complex." 

– Chuck Klosterman, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

As someone knee-deep in the publishing industry (I'm a publishing executive in the editorial department of a media group here in Malaysia, which, in short form, means that I have my nose buried in all aspects of publication), I nodded so vigorously at this essay by Klosterman.

Here's a typical instruction given to our business- and lifestyle-magazine writers all day everyday:

"Write smart, write the kind of articles that you want to read. Our audience is sophisticated, intelligent, and very discerning. State everything clearly so that you don't lose your readers. They don't want to have to read complicated sentences, or encounter uncommon words."

What this means to me is, basically, write articles for readers who like to think that they're smart, but are, in fact, non-readers who cower at vocabulary. Because I've met many sophisticated, intelligent, very discerning readers who don't need any spoonfeeding or "subtle" coaching while reading a magazine.

It pisses me off all the time.

If I were to write articles that I would read, I would definitely pollute it with complex phrases strung together so tastefully that it requires some mind exercise before the reader eventually gets to the very rewarding heart of the message.

And I'm not talking about convoluted sentences and general bad writing dotted with pompous words. I'm talking about smart writing that uses precise (and concise!) language, that shows off the writer's ability to say things with the right words. Intellect.

As a reader, there's a victory that comes with understanding well-written articles, the ones that don't sound like a 2nd grader's school research paper.

But we're so scared of sophisticated language in this industry, which is funny considering that majority of the people in the business presumably AREN'T when they read their preferred publications. Instead, we focus on stunning the readers with visuals instead of good content.

Fine.

At this point, I'm just relieved to discover that we're not the only ones thinking about this, so thank you, Klosterman.