Monday, March 15, 2010

Hey, Charlotte, About that Thing You Wrote Last Night...


Wilbur, the pig, reacts to Charlotte's web work on Slate.

From the piece...

It's not as if I don't appreciate your efforts on my behalf. This must have taken all night, and it certainly looks beautiful up there, bedecked in morning dew and glistening. And—let's make this clear—I'm no writer. I could never do what you do. I simply am not literary. Illiterate is more like it, except for one or two pork-related words I've picked up around the pen. So, please, don't take this the wrong way, but I have a few notes.

Do we really think "Some Pig" gets across the message we're trying to convey?

Maybe I just don't understand what you're going for—but, to me, it seems that "Some Pig" could be interpreted any number of ways, not all of which would achieve our stated goal of keeping me from being ground into breakfast patties. As a sentence fragment, it lacks a certain clarity. What if someone took your unattached clause and hitched it to the word have, as in the sentence, "Have some pig"? Or even, "Have some pig; it goes wonderfully with applesauce." You see my problem.

No comments: