KERA Arts Story Search

Something of a Monday round-up

by Jerome Weeks 16 Dec 2007 8:45 PM

There are two kinds of histories, I was once taught: They’re either beads on a string or marbles in a jar. They either connect events, teleologically, or they accumulate them, layer them. What, then, of a history of histories? At The Dallas Morning News, the editors and copy editors worked diligently to plane down our […]

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There are two kinds of histories, I was once taught: They’re either beads on a string or marbles in a jar. They either connect events, teleologically, or they accumulate them, layer them.

What, then, of a history of histories?

At The Dallas Morning News, the editors and copy editors worked diligently to plane down our prose, so we wouldn’t use too many fancy words. When I did throw in a word that I suspected the editors would yelp about, a word I really felt was necessary, I would argue: Don’t we want our readers to be better readers? To learn something? What’s wrong with looking up words? I always did as a kid — and often still do.

For four years now, that’s what James Meek, author of the terrific novel, The People’s Act of Love, has done: looked up every word he came across that he didn’t know.

New lessons in how to read the body, notably such messages as “Get outta here!” and “Oh … mah … Gawd!” Courtesy of The Valve.

About Jerome Weeks

Jerome Weeks is the Senior Arts Reporter/Producer for KERA. Previously at The Dallas Morning News, he was the book columnist for 10 years and the drama critic for 10 years before that. His writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, American Theatre and Men’s Vogue magazines. View more about Jerome Weeks.