Re: amateur auteur

DB (DB.PRESSBKS@press.uchicago.edu)
Wed, 28 Dec 1994 13:27:50 -0800

Ron Silliman asked:
>So I have two "literary" questions for my marketing colleagues:
>(1) what work is being done today in marketing, especially electronically
and on >the net, that has broader implications for writing?

None. Assuming you mean by "writing," literary writing. The influences
always flow the other way. The look and rhythm of contemporary advertising
copy reflects the influences of modern poetry from William Carlos Williams
on -- variable line length, irregular meter -- neither prose nor poetry as
traditionally written. (I've borrowed this example from somewhere.)
Similarly, the rules for writing marketing copy for the net -- brief and to
the point, convey useful information, do not hype -- why these are just the
same as the rules for writing a short story in the tradition from Hemingway
to Raymond Carver! "Flatten your prose" can equally be prescribed by the
internet marketing consultants and the workshop instructors at the
University of Iowa Writing School. But they been saying that at Iowa for
decades.
So, my advice to all advertising and marketing people is to read the
literary quarterlies as avidly as any trade magazine. Make that a New
Year's resolution.

Dean Blobaum
The University of Chicago Press
dblobaum@press.uchicago.edu
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