miscellany

As far as I’m concerned, no one form of writing is opposed to any other form of writing. Rather, I think of the various forms – journalism, essays, fiction, plays, poetry – as lying at different points along the same axis. Or, to use another metaphor, I think of them as different flowers in a mixed bouquet. Writing is writing is writing. A writer avails him- or herself of whatever form – journalism or poetry or scholarship – suits his or her immediate purpose. To privilege one form over another is self-defeating. A good writer can turn journalism into a kind of poetry (consider Orwell or Agee). By the same token, poetry often provides the kind of urgent news we can ill afford to ignore.