EmmaBeitzel

This is a unique article, bringing to light something most of us have felt but have probably never defined in such a way. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Marc Augé and his concept of the “non-place” (for anyone interested, you can read about it here: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jread2/Auge%20Non%20places.pdf ). In short, a non-place is a transient space of insignificance like an airport, highway or yes, supermarket. In these places everyone is passing through, and normally, you can find tens or hundreds of other places like it. A Walmart in San Francisco can look alarmingly similar to one in Boston. In many ways, the consistency remains not only in specific chains but amongst competitors who, though claiming to offer a different experience, fall back on those repetitive aisles, wire carts, and unspoken rules that the author of this article finds so paralyzing. This is a wonderful example of where art meets sociology. Scholars and poets can find the same conclusions and portray them in different, wonderful ways, even about something as simple as a supermarket!

As an aspiring editor, this concept makes me particularly sad. I couldn’t help but notice that the post itself was full of mistakes that should have been caught by the writer or editor(s). Even in complaint, we often fall into the trap we hate for the same reasons we establish ( I know I’m guilty too).

Last year I had the privilege of running into an editor in the coffee shop I worked at, and had the opportunity to ask her what advice she would give to someone like me, looking to fill her shoes one day. After thinking on it for a few minutes she told me, “Know when to let go.” This post discusses the negative effects time pressure put on many publishers and editors and they couldn’t be any more real. This experienced editor who clearly had a passion for perfection told me that she had knowingly published mistake-ridden manuscripts because of time restraints, and had to learn what she would allow herself to give into and what she would give her attention to when pressed. Editors are still capable and passionate, but media has changed, and they have had to change with it.

Great tips for flash fiction. I’ve tried my hand at it a few times but there’s certainly a learning curve, and this walk through will probably help me next time I sit down to try writing flash again. To me flash fiction seems like it bridges the gap between prose poetry and short story. Prose poetry is usually shorter than fiction, even flash fiction, and the mantra of a poet is “economy, economy, economy.” In flash fiction we are forced into a similar type of concision, resulting in poetic -like visceral imagery.