Wright Thompson: outta the park, through the uprights, slam dunk, et al

Dead. To. Me.

 

Cincinnati isn't even worth Cleveland's hate. Or even disdain.

 

You can take your Skyline Chili and your Graeter's and ... crap, those things are great.

 

And the fact that Cleveland sports suck, and god hates their fans, isn't worth a story even a 1/5 this long. Not really sure why anyone cares. And I like Thompson's stuff for the most part. Loved his story on Zenyatta.

 

I fuckin' hate Ohio with the intensity of a thousand suns, but that piece was fantastic.

And I'm suddenly a fan of Zydrunas Ilgauskus, too.

 

I'm still bitter about having to put your shitty town in my avatar for a week on here.

 

Couple things:

1. Wright is my boy. I'd give him a kidney if he needed one, so I'm not impartial here.

2. From what I can tell, Whitlock is not accusing Wright of fabricating anything, just of schmaltz. And since Whitlock is incapable of genuine emotion that doesn't involve him crying on the radio and lamenting the end of his newspaper career, take that for what it's worth. If he's trying to imply anything else, to hell with him.

3. Wright's style is his style. He's one of the best in the game. Period. He writes stories with first person in them. That's unlikely to change. He is really, really good at it. If you're one of those people who do not like that style, there are a ton of other options out there.

 

Is there any other way to expand one's mind?

 

Listening to System of a Down, you asshole?

 

ok, dd: maybe it is his style. but you know what? it wasn't always his style. he made a choice to make it his style, and i happen to think it's the wrong choice. i'd say gary smith did the same thing a decade or so back, replacing his classic, wholly singular style with a lot more traffic-cop/do this/look there/here's a photo stuff, trying to serve as an extremely intrusive and unnecessary presence because of some secret fear that the material, the subject, sports itself, isn't enough.
i think there are times that guys get bored with the form and think first-person is the way to go, and almost always it feels very lazy. different strokes: doesn't mean there isn't good reporting there, doesn't mean people shouldn't like it if it strikes them the right way. but actually, there AREN'T that many options out there. long-form doesn't have nearly the amount of outlets it used to. so unless first-person does something to ADVANCE the story, instead of just illuminate the writer's role to no significant end, the best thing to do -- as in the case of the exclamation point -- is to almost always stay away from it. because unless you have a truly original mind like, say, hunter thompson, you often come off as, well, the dullest thing there.