dagblog - Comments for "‘The Ideas Made It, But I Didn’t’ ('Pitchfork' Pat Buchanan)"

Thanks, AA. I'm not so

Michael Wolraich — Tue, 02 May 2017 13:38:30 +0000

In reply to Oh my. I know what it is to

Thanks, AA. I'm not so concerned with the black mark as much as my inability to produce lately. It's a deeper problem, and the Buchanan piece is the most glaring example. It was a great opportunity, and there was no excuse for not finishing it.

Maybe I do need a new writing direction. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what it is.

Buck Buchanan in the 25th

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 01 May 2017 19:17:35 +0000

In reply to ah heck if you're really

Buck Buchanan in the 25th Century?

ah heck if you're really

artappraiser — Mon, 01 May 2017 18:36:58 +0000

In reply to Using Occam's Razor, the most

ah heck if you're really looking to make a living as a writer, where's that poll that says a huge population can't really answer who the president is now. And mass market in the age of declining royalties is everything. And drop the history thing, I heard tell that college-educated millenials don't "get" history unless it's steampunked (Ignoring chronology is all the rage at all the museums, so either Buchanan would do). Go futuristic fiction.....

Using Occam's Razor, the most

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 01 May 2017 16:32:52 +0000

In reply to Oh my. I know what it is to

Using Occam's Razor, the most likely excuse is Michael found ot easier to compare Trump to *James* Buchanan, but there's just not that big a market for pre-Civil War exposés.

Oh my. I know what it is to

artappraiser — Mon, 01 May 2017 15:18:40 +0000

In reply to So, I actually pitched an

Oh my. I know what it is to feel regret and even anger about wasted opportunities as well as wasted time and efforts, believe me. So just don't read this piece now. Move on to other things. There is no plan for life, you can't control it like that, it just happens to ya, Even something like writer's block, not something you can control.

I don't mean to say "there's a reason it happened", I don't agree with that. It's more like the Alexander Graham Bell quote When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. And it happens fast, before you know it, everything changes. it's all experience good and bad or indifferent.

What you think is a failure may be useful in a totally different way later. If for some reason you want to revisit the Buchanan topic, this article will still be there. And no doubt by then there will be a new twist. It's likely that before you know it, your contacts with Harper's will all be gone on to other jobs, maybe even dead. You could pitch another story then without a black mark. Maybe you can't, maybe Harper's will be gone tomorrow, as long lived as it is. The old ways of trying to build a C.V. have changed forever, your network will change radically and quickly over and over. You learn both from what you did and what you didn't do.

There's also the whole thing about what we've learned about human brain and memory and sleep, etc. Something like writer's block is probably not something you can do something about if you just had more discipline. Rather, it's probably more along the lines that your brain wasn't ready to tackle the topic yet.

Hope my babble helps more than hurts Don't feel you have to reply.

Kinda retro these days - once

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 01 May 2017 15:11:49 +0000

In reply to Thanks, PP. Cassette recorder

Kinda retro these days - once upon a time it was cutting edge.

Thanks, PP. Cassette recorder

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 01 May 2017 14:52:42 +0000

In reply to Let it go - sometimes writer

Thanks, PP. Cassette recorder. Interesting idea...

Let it go - sometimes writer

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 01 May 2017 14:19:00 +0000

In reply to So, I actually pitched an

Let it go - sometimes writer's block comes for a reason, sometimes because we're just human. Written by one who's dropped dozens of opportunities on the floor. PS - you can also pull an HST and completely change the way you deliver to fit your constraints. Not that I expect ether and White Rabbit and a cassette player in a bathtub is the exact method for your persona.

So, I actually pitched an

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 01 May 2017 13:54:55 +0000

In reply to ‘The Ideas Made It, But I Didn’t’ ('Pitchfork' Pat Buchanan)

So, I actually pitched an article on Pat Buchanan and Trump to Harper's. They agreed to read it if I wrote it on spec. I did a bunch of research, interviewed Buchanan, started writing...and then dropped the ball. I kept getting writer's block whenever I tried to write and couldn't make enough time for it. So I never finished. I'm so angry and disappointed with myself that I can't even bring myself to read this piece. Sigh.

It is true that Buchanan

moat — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 23:00:23 +0000

In reply to ‘The Ideas Made It, But I Didn’t’ ('Pitchfork' Pat Buchanan)

It is true that Buchanan promoted white supremacy back when the GOP establishment saw his message as too much of an investment in identity politics. The recent explosion of that rhetoric is not actually all that nationalist in that it does not promote a shared experience beyond the differences allowed in the 1st Amendment Establishment of Religion clause.

In Buchanan's analysis of culture, he arrogates all the benefits of our form of life to the result of certain group of people holding a circumscribed set of beliefs.