Well Said

"I will not trouble myself to acknowledge the air."

From the comments section of Ta-Neishi Coates' blog post, "One Last Thought On iPads and Xboxes."  More impressive than Coates' argument, was how he fit so much context into so few words.  

AOM Is Top Notch

"It is a transitional time for the culture of manhood. The idea of proving one’s manhood has certainly not disappeared and is very much still with us. But at the same time, there are few outlets for men to be tested. There is no tribe of men to judge one worthy, no rites-of-passage, no proving grounds to make one’s stand. And thus we see a source of modern male anxiety: the ancient desire to prove one’s manhood meets with a world where opportunities to do so are practically non-existent."

Evolution in context. At Art of Manliness.

McPhee on Nonfiction

 

"I decided that I would work in the big world by day and learn how it worked, then write about it at night."

"Structure is not a template. It's not cookie cutter. It's something that arises organically from the material once you have it."

"All these labels - I've been called an agricultural writer, an outdoor writer, an environmental writer, a sportswriter, a science writer. And so you just grin. I'm a writer who writes about real people in real places. End of story."

"But some people think I should be writing with my cudgel. They think that I don't have the temerity to express these opinions. That's just the exact reverse of what's going on. I'm trying to lay things out for the reader. Not to take the reader and rub his nose in it, and say, This is how you should think. I want the reader to do his own thinking. And why do I do that? Because I think it's a higher form of writing."

John McPhee on nonfiction writing - Paris Review, Issue 192