Hm... Asked to write an article for a newspaper. Any ideas?

[Kyriakos]

Actually it isn't even a small newspaper (and obviously it is a printed one). The article will be in the art segment, and about literature. As usual my hugely impressive bio of 27 (got one more today :\ ) printed story-stuff and library seminar organisation and presentation, along with my imposing BA degree, made myself be an obvious choice when... i asked if i can write for them and they quickly made it clear that i won't be paid.

Still, as always, it is a position with some prestige, and can open other doors. So they asked me to first send some very brief piece without a specific theme (but as a literary critique article). Something like 2 pages at most. And now i have to think of what i should write about, cause my brief discussion with the columnist made me realise that they would rather want a more general piece, and likely something more inviting in a somewhat carefree manner.
So they surely have the right person. I always write inviting and carefree stuff. About Kafka and other dark catacombs where things can aspire to be maimed or tend to slip away from some schism.

*

Any ideas as to what a general and very brief article could be more pleasant to be about, for the literary segment of a daily and reasonably large newspaper?

 

[Gori the Grey]

Are Greek people big Harry Potter fans? J.K. Rowling has just published, under a pseudonym, a detective novel intended for more adult audiences. You could do a review of it.

 

[Kyriakos]

Are Greek people big Harry Potter fans? J.K. Rowling has just published, under a pseudonym, a detective novel intended for more adult audiences. You could do a review of it.

That was a good idea, but you did not factor in just how lazy (and incredibly smug as well) i am

I already told them that i cannot really produce reviews of the summer printed books (a bit of a suicidal position on my part? Well, partly, but then again if i had just lied it would have forced me to write some drool about stuff i would not read anyway, so i would lose more badly ).

 

[dusters]

Kafka. You leave an impression that you know his bibliography by heart ^^

Take a story of his, analyze it in a way relevant to Here and Now moment, relevant to the city/country newspaper is located at (Greece i suppose). Good luck!

 

[Gori the Grey]

It seemed from the other thread that you are no fan of rap. You could start a piece with the observation that some regard rap as an important literary form, then contest that claim.

A few tangential questions: will the piece be in Greek or English?

And (these are just for my own satisfaction): Is there much Greek rap? Does modern Greek metrical poetry (as was true of ancient Greek) use quantity rather than stress to build its rhythms? If so, maybe Greek doesn't lend itself to rap, and there isn't much Helleno-hip-hop. (In which case, strike my suggestion.)

 

[Kyriakos]

This is Greece. What do you think it is, Ancient Greece? Very few care about that stuff cause the times are terrible and they rarely cared even when things were better. Erosion of actual thinking and reading had already happened as much here - if not more - as everywhere else in the so-called 'west'.
And -to answer Duster's question- sadly they already told me that Kafka is out of the question (in fact i linked to a brief article of mine on the Metamorphosis, posted in some online lit Greek site, and that was what sparked the 'more carefree' discussion. ).

The newspaper is in Greek, it circulates here, and the articles are also in Greek I suppose a good idea might be to write something about the new rise of short-story-centered editions, either local (Thessalonike) or panhellenic. Given it is just 2 pages i can pretty much just write about one thing, and a very specific one as well.
But they did show considerable interest about my suggestion to possibly have some sort of interview of some publishing people in the city who i came to speak to due to having things published in their periodicals. But that would follow later- if it comes to that..

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Somehow I'm having difficulty connecting you with the word "carefree"...

You've been asking about science fiction a lot in recent months. Is there much of a science fiction readership in Greece? Any specific Greek science fiction authors you might want to write about?

 

[Kyriakos]

I don't think there are many (at least in novel-writing; short-stories are another field and there is even a periodical devoted to local scifi, which i don't have a positive opinion of :\ ). But there are even more who write in the larger horror-genre. Some mixed views about them. I know at least one who i like considerably (he has a book out as well, short-story collection ). Also there are even horror-lit festivals. I surely will refer to something about those in the article, given one of them is organised in this city, on an annual basis.

But one thing there are very many new writers of, here, is fantasy literature (as in dragons, knights, and similar plots). And yeah, i don't even feel like commenting more about that

 

[Gori the Grey]

This is Greece. What do you think it is, Ancient Greece?

Dude, I'm just trying to help you brainstorm! I don't know what level of literary engagement the average Greek newspaper reader has. Don't give me disapproving smilies when I try to help.

And look: my proposing something that you knew to be inappropriate actually prompted you to think of something that did work.

And no, if I'd thought an ancient Greek was asking, I'd have said:

γραϕικε παλιν Αριστοτιλης περι κωμῳδικης εργον ολομενον

 

[Borachio]

I suggest you write an article about a young-ish writer who has written to a newspaper asking them to let him write an article, and about how he sought advice on an internet forum, and got no good advice at all. Apart from this one post advising him to write an article about a young-ish writer who...

 

[BvBPL]

Write your article on books for the beach. It is the perfect time of the year for that perennial story.

 

[Kyriakos]

Dude, I'm just trying to help you brainstorm! I don't know what level of literary engagement the average Greek newspaper reader has. Don't give me disapproving smilies when I try to help.

And look: my proposing something that you knew to be inappropriate actually prompted you to think of something that did work.

And no, if I'd thought an ancient Greek was asking, I'd have said:

γραϕικε παλιν Αριστοτιλης περι κωμῳδικης εργον ολομενον

I was not attacking you, of course! I just wanted to stress more how things are (sadly) here as well.

Thanks for all the posts And yes, reading books in the summer is what the newspaper columnists already mentioned. Very original and interesting idea

 

[Kyriakos]

An update: I sent a very brief article (1,5 pages) as an example of sorts..

Not had a reply yet (they said they will read it this week).

The topic is about whether one has a reason to be reading books (of fiction). Generally the argument is that the reader re-constructs what he/she is reading, so under some circumstances it can be important to him/her.

 

[Harv]

Wasn't there a book written about the leadership and teamwork skills gained by playing MMORPG's that are relevant in today's business world?

Do you play at all?

I will have to look it up what the book was. I stumbled upon it reading a comment on an episode of The Guild on Youtube. Is this at all relevant or helpful?

MMORPG:

Spoiler :

Many Males Online Role Playing Girls

Oops

Mass Multi Player Online Role Playing Game

 

[Kyriakos]

Thanks, but i don't play computer games since a couple of years now... :\ As for MMORPG i only played for two days (in the late 90s!) the Ultima Online, and got pretty scared when talking to someone there who was in for months and hours each day, and still only was a lowly woodsman

 

[downtown]

Weird that a newspaper would use pages as a length measurement, rather than words or inches. If it is a print newspaper, the "page" length of a submitted article tells you nothing.

I've written dozens of newspaper articles here in the states. Best recommendation? Keep the prose very simple and clear (no superfluous language), and keep the interest broad. Writing exceptionally niche-interest level articles for a newspaper with a broad circulation is a good way to not get paid.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Uh... they obviously asked for words, up to 500. *Maybe* it would be more practical to note here in the thread their length in pages

 

[Kyriakos]

Update: The first article was printed/published 5 days ago- in the Sunday paper

I was now asked to prepare a second small article for next week..

And i translated the first article (originally was in Greek), if anyone feels like having a look at what it was about:

"Why would one read?


It is customary- and regarded as evidently correct- to encourage the reading of books. But what is the use of this, and is any benefit resulting from reading to be specified?

It appears that- much like on other matters as well- on the issue of reading books the process through which a reader shall form a more clear opinion about the value of that which he read is a gradual one, and the effect of conscious or unconscious comparison between his new readings and those of the past. In time he will be also developing a far more specific fondness for particular types of books. A new reader has not yet come to set his own axis of interest in regards to the sentences he is viewing by one author or another: in that he is much like a pupil in the elementary school years, who certainly has to first learn to draw lines, and may be very surprised by noticing the paradoxical forms of a spiral...

Reading, however, is not a responsibility which is forced on one by means of a threat that he may be graded negatively. Nor through an allusion to claims that a life lacking in reading is worthy of contempt. One reads- and continues to do so- on account of discovering thoughts which enrich him, or is drawn in the glowing light of a description which urges his memory and his own creation of an extension to what he just read.
Everyone seeks to express something, not only the writer of the lines, but also their reader. And it is the reader who often illuminates the text in his own manner which leads to the discovery of elements within that even its own author did not have consciously in his mind while forming those passages, but perhaps they can even be said to be more crucial as an understanding of what had been written.
One does read, in the end, not out of some will to learn of the views of the author, but (whether he realizes it or not) due to searching for his own private, deeper thoughts, and those hidden emotions which are now set in motion again by a part of the text. And while he is reading those bits, the text itself can seem as if it was in reality not a progression of lines, but a living archer who calls the reader to stand next to him, and now throws an easy-to-observe arrow so as to hit that one target which the reader had been looking for since so long ago... and perhaps having forgotten about it in the meantime.

A book which is of importance to one is already providing him with a pleiad of abilities to ponder on everything he has up to now carried with him in his thoughts, up to this moment. As if he was walking up to that point always parallel to a high wall, but now has discovered a door on that barrier, it is very evidently the sensible conclusion that he would continue reading such a book: equally sensible as it would have been for the walker by the wall barrier to now approach all the more, and touch that gate which leads to other realms of his own, personal internal garden.".

 

[dusters]

Can i copy paste your article in my blog? It is read by thousands of people from my country. I will put your Civfanatics username as an author.

Why? Because i think you have touched very important points there. If you want, you can pm me your real name, so i can put it there.

 

[Kyriakos]

Can i copy paste your article in my blog? It is read by thousands of people from my country. I will put your Civfanatics username as an author.

Why? Because i think you have touched very important points there. If you want, you can pm me your real name, so i can put it there.

You can use it if you want to

I'll pm you the newspaper page with the original (copied for online) in Greek.