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Friday, 25 July 2008
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Because you can't have depths without surfaces.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
About me
Linda Grant is a novelist and journalist. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000 and the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage in 2006. She writes for the Guardian, Telegraph and Vogue. Her latest novel, The Clothes on Their Backs was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. For further information including upcoming literary festivals bookstore readings etc see her website at www.lindagrant.co.uk
My other blog
Buchmendel - some words from books
Books by Linda Grant
- The Thoughtful Dresser Non-Fiction 2009)
- For further information see www.linda.grant.co.uk
- The Clothes on Their Backs (Fiction 2008)
- The People on the Street (Winner of the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage 2006)
- Still Here (Fiction 2002)
- When I Lived in Modern Times (Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2000)
- Remind Me Who I Am Again (Non-fiction 1998)
- The Cast Iron Shore (Fiction 1996)
- Sexing the Millenium (Non-Fiction 1993)
This blog believes
'A good handbag makes the outfit.'
'Only the rich can afford cheap shoes'
'The only thing worse than being skint is looking as if you're skint.'
'A new dress is a great help in all circumstances.' (Noel Streatfeild)
'The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual, in his modest peculiarities and his right to these peculiarities.' (Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate.)
'Only the rich can afford cheap shoes'
'The only thing worse than being skint is looking as if you're skint.'
'A new dress is a great help in all circumstances.' (Noel Streatfeild)
'The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual, in his modest peculiarities and his right to these peculiarities.' (Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate.)
Followers
Other sites: Fashion, Literature, Politics etc
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13 comments:
Linda, I feel your pain.
I draft contracts for a living and I can’t tell you how many times an attorney will just need to "improve" a draft by adding a ton of idiotic language (1) that doesn’t change the deal, (2) doesn't address a legal issue, and (3) doesn’t add any value except to hold things up. This inevitably happens when the other party has outside counsel and the firm wants to rack up as many billable hours as possible.
fantastic!
You are not kidding there, Linda.
Phyllis, since we're going way off topic, I am a lawyer and I also draft contracts for a living. I never add wording that doesn't address a legal issue or in some other way add value. Some of it might very well seem idiotic to you or to another lay person but then without a law degree or having practised as a lawyer in that field, how would you know whether it was justified? By the way, as I am not the client, it's not my job to change the deal but to record it faithfully and protect my client as much as possible. There; a statement that I have always wanted to write!
Back to Mr Coren whose email rantings are almost better than his columns, although the spoof Giles Coren Twitter feed that ran for about six hours yesterday was even better. However, I have to say that I have some sympathy for the subs. Either the joke wasn't very good or perhaps the dual meaning isn't well enough known, but if the subs didn't get it, why should they presume that anyone else would?
The Gaurdian really should have spell checked that, they spelled sentence wrong in the first bullted graph. It kind of took away from the diatribe about sentence structure to read, "Why would you change a sentnece aso that it meant something I didn't mean?" Was he just being ironic, or in a dead rush, or careless before he hit send?
I am a writer and a former newspaper editor, and while I agree with Mr Coren, I also think he is way over the top. So the sub editor made a mistake. Point it out, preferably with some humor, and cool it. A rant like this is the way to make sure that he will never be asked to write for that publication again.
mq - I'm a legal professional too. I have a paralegal certificate from an ABA accreditd program and I've been doing this for over 10 years. I stand by my observation, and every in-house attorney I've ever worked with who who deals with outside counsel agrees with me.
I'd happy to take this off-line with you but your name tag has no link.
Sorry Linda, I'll stop now.
I'm a sub-editor/copy taster/writer and I think that mq, cb are quite right. Either the joke isn't well known enough, or the dual meaning isn't well known. Coren has gone right off his trolley. How precious of him.
I hope he won't be sent a copy of his reviews before they go to print. Allow it for one foot-stamping lunatic and you'll have them lining up.
Some columnists are untouchable icons, I'm aware of that, but they are very much in the minority and should remain so.
On the other hand, truely shitty subbing of my copy makes me just furious. If my byline is on the story, I take the rap. The anonymous sub-editor goes unscathed.
Sub-editors do need to be accountable, and they do need to be very literate.
It's an imperfect business, this.
Whether you get the joke or not, when "nosh" is used as a noun, it's always "a nosh." Perhaps the editor has never hung in cultures where Yiddish has made its way into local lexicon.
Some of my journo pals and I regularly email each other with 'What I wrote, what they put' rants. The published results are often completely nonsensical. Agreed, if your byline is on the piece then you get the rap.
i object to mr. coren's use of the "irish plasterer" as his example of shoddy work. seems he's not quite so sensitive about other things.
I love, love, LOVE that he mentions metre, that he treats his sentences with such care that he actually considers how they are read and not just the word order. More than anything he said about content that made his point - the editing ruined his style.
I have this pinned on my office wall to remind me to have nothing to do with people like Giles Coren. He writes for a daily newspaper. That means the subeditors pull the whole thing together daily, no matter how close to the deadline the writers filed their copy and no matter how shitty the copy is when it arrives. Imagine how many stupid mistakes the subs pick up in a single day, and how much embarrassment they thereby save writers like Coren. Naturally the only time he notices their work is the one time in a thousand they make a mistake. So, no, not fantastic at all, unless incredible rudeness to dedicated professional people doing difficult and thankless work with extremely tight deadlines is fantastic.
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