Occasionally, while reading an author I’m not familiar with, I get the feeling that they aren’t writing for me. Their intended reader seems to be a Netflix producer they’re hoping to convince to turn it into a series. In the science fiction genre, three examples that come to mind are The Three Body Problem, Project Hail Mary, and Sea of Tranquility. It’s the same with TV series that are designed to keep me watching by delaying the resolution of some mystery from episode to episode. For social media sites, the incompatibility between what they would like me to do (give them as much attention as possible) and what I would like to do (other things) is obvious.
I want those whose books I read or whose entertainment I watch to be on my side. I want them to have, in a broad sense, my best interest at heart, and not that of a network or a political ideology. I don’t want them to write with an economic imperative in mind that’s not aligned with what’s good for me.
This is why I liked what author Ernst Junger said when he was recently interviewed on Ken Ilguna’s podcast, Out of the Wild:
I really try to keep [my books] short with a mind toward the comfort of the reader. You don’t want to take the reader’s time if you don’t need to […] Time is a commodity. It’s a resource like money is. The 50 hours it takes you to read a long book costs you more than the $20 it costs you to buy it.
He was talking about non-fiction books . The calculus is different for fiction, but even there, saying it with fewer words is generally preferable.
Here are my thoughts on Junger’s Tribe.
Nehaveigur 