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Jul. 22nd, 2009 05:02 pmCalvino, from "Smog":
I wrote the article a third time. It was all right, at last. Only the editing ("Thus we are face to face with a terrible problem, affecting the destiny of society. Will we solve it?") caused him to raise an objection.
"Isn't that a bait too uncertain? he asked. "Won't it discourage our readers?"
The simplest thing was to remove the question mark and shift the pronoun. "We will solve it." Just like that, without any exclamation point: calm self-confidence.
"But doesn't that make it seem too easy? As if it were just a routine matter?"
We agreed to repeat the words. Once with the question mark and once without. "Will we solve it? We will solve it."
But didn't this seem to postpone the solution to a vague future time? We tried putting it in the present tense. "Are we solving it? We are solving it." But this didn't have the right ring.
Writing an article always proceeds in the same way. You begin by changing a comma, and then you have to change a word, then the word order of a sentence, and then it all collapses. We argued for half an hour. I suggested using different tenses for the question and the answer: "Will we solve it? We are solving it." The President was enthusiastic and from that day on his faith in my talents never wavered.
I wrote the article a third time. It was all right, at last. Only the editing ("Thus we are face to face with a terrible problem, affecting the destiny of society. Will we solve it?") caused him to raise an objection.
"Isn't that a bait too uncertain? he asked. "Won't it discourage our readers?"
The simplest thing was to remove the question mark and shift the pronoun. "We will solve it." Just like that, without any exclamation point: calm self-confidence.
"But doesn't that make it seem too easy? As if it were just a routine matter?"
We agreed to repeat the words. Once with the question mark and once without. "Will we solve it? We will solve it."
But didn't this seem to postpone the solution to a vague future time? We tried putting it in the present tense. "Are we solving it? We are solving it." But this didn't have the right ring.
Writing an article always proceeds in the same way. You begin by changing a comma, and then you have to change a word, then the word order of a sentence, and then it all collapses. We argued for half an hour. I suggested using different tenses for the question and the answer: "Will we solve it? We are solving it." The President was enthusiastic and from that day on his faith in my talents never wavered.
