There have always been writers, through the ages, who complain that the best books have already been written. There are others who exclaim that every worthwhile story has already been told. Movie producers stick with remakes of old standards rather than risk untried directions. The world of art, literature, and music has become a vacuum filled with the merely derivative. What makes great reading is not whether the story is new or not, but how the author approaches even familiar material with a new eye, a novel twist, or an unexpected perspective. We seldom read literature on the Web, the scrolling becomes too tedious when prolonged for more than a few minutes at a time. I would venture that not even the brave soul who would voluntarily risk blindness and carpal tunnel syndrome could really consume the entirety of War and Peace on a 16 inch monitor. We generally read much smaller chunks of words on line. We read site descriptions and informational paragraphs. We read relatively short articles and brief newsletters. We read news stories and opinion pieces that rarely exceed two pages. We read e-books and exe.files and brief highlights on the arts, politics, and music. Even with the limits imposed by the medium itself, can't we have the same expectations as when we open a wonderful book? If you are writing something you would like me to read, all I ask is that you do a good job. Show me what is unique about you and what you're saying. Lead me in a direction that fills me with satisfaction and appreciation. Because your essay is only a few paragraphs long, doesn't mean that it has to be unoriginal or stale. Haiku poems are five lines long yet contain limitless potential. The fables of Aesop are primarily two or three paragraphs long yet speak volumes about the foibles of human nature. Give me freshness, variety, and a taste of greatness. I am totally frustrated by the lack of vitality found in the majority of websites. I am amazed and appalled at the energy that is expended to sell me something without concern for the totality of me beyond my trusty credit card. There is so much missing from the Net. There is so much that could be added to broaden and deepen our browsing experience. Yet the concept of "niche" sites has deteriorated into just another marketing campaign to generate as much income as the traffic will bear. Where, on the Web, is fantasy, so beloved and popular in literature? Where are the deeply considered and finely honed political and philosophical issues of the day? Where is the poetry whose magic can transform the direction of our lives? Where is the biting satire and eloquent comment on our leaders and social mores that re-orients our political and cultural decisions? Where are the nuggets of wisdom and insight that can help us face life with a more positive attitude? Where is the simple faith that can bind our wounds and succor our spirits? Give me your best. Lay out the personal values you espouse and make me privy to your inner landscape. Show me the dawn of a new morning through fresh eyes and your own personal filter. Share who you are and what you are and invite my participation. Ten people can write about the same subject yet every piece is unique because of the individual world view it represents. Don't try to mislead me by palming off those odious "content site" articles to which you, and several hundred other people, have the "right" to claim authorship. If you have no point of view of your own, and cannot finely craft a unique work, then find yourself another line of business and let the repetitive, poor quality, endlessly replicated web pages of the phony articles shrivel and die, as they deserve, on the already overly congested information superhighway. |
