Lileks Explains It All To You

James Lileks covers a lot of territory in today's Bleat:

I wonder sometimes, I really do. I imagine some people find the Bleat because someone linked to a gust of blather, and after six or seven visits they wonder hey, why aren't you Defrosted Angry Neocon all the time? Maybe because I'm not Defrosted Angry Neocon. I have my moments, of course. But mostly this page is what it is. Some movie reviews, some kid stories, nostalgic tripe, dispatches from middle age, sugared chaff, small beer, red meat. I am resigned to the fact that I will disappoint everyone, eventually. But just so you know: I discuss politics, but I am not a politician. I discuss music, but I'm hardly a musician. I write about movies, but I've only been on one side the camera, not the other. I write about art, but I can't draw. I write about parenthood, but like most I'm making it up as I go along. Appearances to the contrary, I do not mistake my ability to write about something as proof that I'm right. It could just mean I have a gift for ordering my ignorance into pleasing shapes.

Lileks has a free pass to wander the highways and byways of the web, bringing back fascinating ephemera (or dreary old crap, depending on the day, and your particular attitude). He's one of the more consistent voices on the web, and his daily Bleats are always worth a visit.

His (to use an overworked phrase) folksy style fits the niche perfectly: he doesn't demand to be taken seriously as an analyst. He doesn't whine that you're ignoring his Cassandra-like warnings. He doesn't pretend to a Delphic Oracle-like self-importance or network news anchor self-importance (a much deeper and more self-regarding version of the former). He just writes about what interests him.

If that interests you, great. If not, come back again tomorrow: there's bound to be something different there.

I wish I could write as well as Lileks does. I'm actually a professional writer by trade, but I'm in the shallow-end of the writing gene pool: I'm a [shudder] technical writer. Oh, the shame of it all!

Technical writing is perhaps the worst training ground for creative writers. Instead of polishing the descriptive abilities, technical writing is the process of whittling down the prose and sanding off the decoration. A good technical writer writes instructions or descriptions that (ideally) barely even register as you read the words — because the words are merely the carriers of the information you need. If you notice the words as words, you're being distracted from the primary goal of the reader: getting the information as quickly and as clearly as possible.

I'm not sure that I'd want to swap places with Lileks: I'm pretty certain that I'd have ruined things for him by the time we swapped back, and then he'd have to send his trained legions of web-fans to beat me into meat paste. That wouldn't be much fun. Still, I've been starting my day by visiting the Bleat for a couple of years now. It's a habit I recommend to you, too.