Posts by David Benjamin
The residue of journalism
by David Benjamin “From journalism I learned to write under pressure, to work with deadlines, to have limited space and time, to conduct and interview, to find information, to research, and above all, to use language as efficiently as possible and to remember always that there is a reader out there.” ― Isabel Allende MADISON,……
Read MoreInvasion of the Hermaphrodites!
by David Benjamin “It was difficult for me to see the relationship between public morals and public toilets, as to me those facilities had been more a matter of convenience than of sex.” —Christine Jorgensen MADISON, Wis.—Come here once. Follow me into the boys’ room. I know, it’s a scary place—where dead-end kids go to…
Read MoreHoning in on the haphazard homonym
by David Benjamin “When a person has a poor ear for music he will flat and sharp right along without knowing it. He keeps near the tune, but is not the tune. When a person has a poor ear for words, the result is a literary flatting and sharping; you perceive what he is intending…
Read MoreThe magic of “narrative transportation”
by David Benjamin “No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly……
Read MoreOur so-what majority
by David Benjamin “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” —Pogo MADISON, Wis.—It might not seem evident to the naked psyche, but the MAGA army is in retreat. Its soldiers are, after all, a cult whose god is now a lame duck. The Capitol Hill vandals have one last tantrum to throw—call it…
Read MoreMovies to warm your cockles by
by David Benjamin “Sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass everyday, but, mister, you ain’t seen a ray of light since you got here.” — Opal Fleener MADISON, Wis.— America is a nation of front-runners. There’s ample evidence of this in the fact that, for example, the most-bought baseball cap every year since before…
Read More“Style” is not fashion
You can call it copy editing or nitpicking. But the exhaustive application of “style” rules, in grammar and punctuation are a basic necessity to the discipline and reputation of a serious writer. by David Benjamin “The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing……
Read MoreFirst thing we do, we kill all the reporters
by David Benjamin “Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you.” —Kash Patel, Trump campaign consultant “The worst thing we can do, the absolute worst, is to do nothing.” —Fritz Gerlich MADISON, Wis.—They came…
Read MoreCharacters and types
by David Benjamin “Characterization is only hard because sometimes I feel I get so interested in it that I want to talk too much about the characters and that slows the story down. So I say, ‘Hey, people want to find out what’s going to happen next, they don’t want to listen to you spout……
Read MoreThe art of the scavenge
by David Benjamin “Workin’ on the railroad, a dollar and a dime a day, “Give my woman the dollar, and throw the dime away … ” — Josh White MADISON, Wis.—Kids need money. I’m not sure how kids get it these days. Maybe they just ask Mom and Dad, as payment for playing Little League…
Read More