Slate and Salon

It occurs to me that the people who write literature pieces for Slate and Salon actually know better than one might guess by what tends to get said in their pieces, but have to write toward the audience.

Comments

[t.s.]

If so, why can't they write above that mark and bring their audiences with them?

[Scott McLemee]

Not the audience, proper, so much as the editors and what the editors understand to be the desires and capacities of the audience -- rightly or not.

There are always various assumptions embedded in a house style. With Slate, there is a strong emphasis on what they call "making an argument." This boils down to being contrarian in some way. There is seldom much more to it than that.

[t.s.]

I just happened to be looking at this review by Judith Shulevitz in Slate, and it stands up pretty well. But then she's not there any longer.

[Daniel]

Oh that just makes those sites so sad.