Texting is a supremely secretive medium of communication - it's like passing a note - and this means we should be very careful what we use it for.
From Lynne Truss
You don't want to make an enemy of Piers Morgan.
Oh, the illusion of choice in the modern world - don't get me started. But don't you agree that the Internet has softened our brains and made us forget that 'choice' used to mean something different from selecting options from menus?
I do needlepoint from kits. I give them as gifts to people in the form of cushion covers and they are often speechless with horror.
I used to help my dad with a stall selling eggs when I was about 12. People were so hard up they would ask for one egg. But mostly no one came by at all. It was very demoralising.
As with email, the recipient of a texted question seems to have the option to ignore it, while nevertheless saying, 'Hello, lovely day,' and so on.
Texting is a fundamentally sneaky form of communication, which we should despise, but it is such a boon we don't care. We are all sneaks now.
One of the things that all authors of fiction must learn to judge is whether - and in what detail - to describe the face of a character.
Writers and painters alike are in the business of consulting their own imaginations, and stimulating the imaginations of others. Together, and separately, they celebrate the absolute mystery of otherness.
After university, I got a job sub-editing and for years I was a literary editor.
2 perspectives
1 perspectives