Today’s blog post was originally going to be Write Whatever the @#$% You Want, Pt. III. However, after seeing parts I and II lined up, I decided to call an audible and make it something less repetitive. Somehow the SEO gods have gotten into my head.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post or two, I’ve been reading Remembrance of Things Past, a.k.a. In Search of Lost Time, Proust’s 4,000-page, seven-volume masterpiece. At the same time, I’ve also been writing about artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and other 21st-century phenomena.
As you can imagine, the gulf between modern technologies and 19th-century concerns seems to yawn wider every day.
That leads me to today’s headline, Those Tricky French Authors and Their Obsessions. I kind of get why Balzac drank coffee by the gallon and Proust was neurotic to the core. Who wouldn’t be jacked up, living in a place like the photo above? I took that picture in 2010 and have been more obsessed with France, not less, ever since.
More Current Obsessions (With No Segue)
It seems we are living in the age of the hyphen, not just the age of the acronym. In the past two hours alone, I’ve come across the phrases meta-medium, micro-content, and circuit-miles in my online reading. And those are for freelance gigs. No wonder this post is already littered with hyphens. Circuit-miles? Do people Google this stuff to find out what it’s supposed to mean?
I’m also seeing some incredibly unrealistic pay rates for writers, er, content creators. Fifteen bucks an hour? Look, I know companies need to tighten their belts and so forth. But let’s try to be mindful of the dollar’s declining value and the ever-higher cost of living. What cost seven dollars in 1978 now costs $32. Do those jobs that paid seven bucks an hour then command $32 an hour now? I’m gonna say, No.
Maybe we should have a premium on hyphens for writers: for every hyphenated phrase you provide in an article, you get a $10 bonus. That should make everybody happy.
I’m kidding. Somehow, between reading Proust and writing about computer programming, I’m learning to straddle a line between Hunter Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut. That should help with my work-in-progress, Hot Scenes, which is supposed to be funny, after all. Only time will tell.
Okay, enough rambling for today. Happy Monday, people!
