Making words dance
What makes great journalism? The integrity of an institution such as the BBC or Der Spiegel or the character of an individual like Ryszard Kapuscinski or Christopher Hitchens? I'm sure you could make a case for other criteria just as easily as one for selecting different examples. Regardless, there is such a thing as great journalism and it's instantly recognisable when encountered. For many bloggers, there's a lot to be gained by being able to identify and emulate quality journalism, because quality blogging won't win the respect it deserves until it delivers the goods in the right wrapping.
In attempting to understand the nature of great journalism, I've been studying the writings of Nico Colchester recently. Colchester had the rare ability to make words dance and fortunate readers of The Economist and the Financial Times enjoyed his elegant writing until his untimely death in 1996 at the age of 49. Here's a sample of his work. Called "Crunchiness", it first appeared in The Economist in August 1988.
"Crunchiness brings wealth. Wealth leads to sogginess. Sogginess brings poverty. Poverty creates crunchiness. From this immutable cycle we know that to hang on to wealth, you must keep things crunchy."
Notice the absence of fancy phrasing? The first four sentences are as snappy as the jabs of Sugar Ray Leonard in his heyday.
"Crunchy systems are those in which small changes have big effects leaving those affected by them in no doubt whether they are up or down, rich or broke, winning or losing, dead or alive. The going was crunchy for Captain Scott as he plodded southwards across the sastrugi. He was either on top of the snow-crust and smiling, or floundering thigh-deep. The farther south he marched the crunchier his predicament became."
Colchester never deployed his erudition gratuitously, but when he called upon his learning and reading the effect was deeply satisfying. The Scott example is palpable.
"Sogginess is comfortable uncertainty. The modern Scott is unsure how deeply he is in it. He can radio for an airlift, or drop in on an American early-warning station for a hot toddy. The richer a society becomes, the soggier its systems get. Light-switches no longer turn on or off: they dim."
The imagery in that final sentence is immediately convincing for the reader feeling queasy about change and decay.
"Intelligent questions replace the church's absolute faith. Seat belts are worn. Words (like these) are not written down, but processed endlessly. Exam papers are no longer passed or failed but graded, with no one quite sure what grade is needed for what."
Colchester has been called "timeless", and with justification. This year's A Level marking scandal in Britain shows how aware he was of the rot that had taken hold in so many bureaucracies.
"Stalin was crunchy in his own way. Gorbachev needs somehow to become a lot crunchier in his. Mrs Thatcher is certainly crunchy. Her policies towards the Falkland Islands, the British coalmining union and the dwindling worth of the pound were crunchiness writ large. Inflation is acutely soggy, leaching away the wealth of savers and the obligations of debtors, transferring national income from the uncomplaining to the militant. But after nine crunchy years fighting inflation Mrs Thatcher seems to be flirting with sogginess today. Her desire to keep sterling floating rather than link it firmly to the D-mark is uncrunchy too — the Bundesbank being the crunchiest institution in a country that is rapidly becoming Europe's soggiest. President Reagan? Crunchy but with a sentimentally soft centre. Munchy perhaps."
What can one say? Thirteen years after Colchester's article appeared, Germany has completely fulfilled his prophecy. Those who blame reunification for the damage are being disingenuous because the degeneration was obvious in 1988. And, now, the final inspirational paragraph:
"A crunchy policy is not necessarily right, only more certain than a soggy one to deliver the results that it deserves. Run your country, or your company, or your life as you think fit. But whatever you decide, keep things crunchy."
Let us honour Nico Colchester with crunchy blogging. He would have approved.
