2008 Woodie Awards
Former Editor Responds to Column, Letter
Will Schweitzer
- Page 1 of 1
Ms. Kelly needs to write a letter to herself about sex and seduction. Seduction, allure and intrigue are three things good columns, great strippers and the best girlfriends have in common. Seduction, allure and intrigue make readers, and men, powerless. The power comes from subtlety, the slow reveals, quiet insinuations and the want for things left unsaid and unseen. The best writers, like first dates, deliver their promises by showing, not telling.
She is, by far, one of the best columnists I have ever read and has incredible potential. My only critique of February's column is that she forced her voice and thereby overextended her premise in an effort to shock the reader and keep them coming back for more (no pun intended). I don't find her writing to be obscene, vulgar or inexcusably offensive. Her introduction and the line about relationships being like dolls are brilliant. However, her last paragraph was forced, crossed the line from wit to tawdry and debased humor, and damaged her credibility with readers who are looking for well-written, well-thought and nuanced journalism.
As a former school newspaper editor, I am incredibly tired of complaining readers asserting that the college newspaper represents the university. The newspaper does not represent anything, it reflects. The newspaper writes for and about the campus community in an egalitarian and democratic effort that sometimes falls shorts of acerbic and morally indignant assertions of the chaste, prude and otherwise conservative members of the campus community.
Schweitzer, undergraduate business student, is former editor at large of The UB Post and former editor in chief of The Bottom Line at Frostburg State University.
Be the first to comment on this story