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Article: The vestigial tale; In our modern click-and-skim world, there's dwindling time and space for the expertly crafted narrative
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 29, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Washington Post. This material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Gary Smith writes very long stories for a living. They run 8,000
words. He crafts four of them a year for Sports Illustrated. He is a
throwback, a spinner of yarns in what we will call for the millionth
time the Age of Twitter. Narrative these days competes against
incrementalized information -- data, chatter, noise. Smith doesn't
think he's a dinosaur, but he does fear that the long-form narrative
doesn't quite work on a computer screen.
"You're on the Web and the Internet all day, and you got your
trigger finger on that Scroll Down button. And you're looking to
move material across the screen. Move-and-skim is the mood you're
in."
And that's no way to read a story.
"A story curls you ...