Comments for Gangrey.com

Comment on Hello Out There by Jones

Jones — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:28:36 +0000

At risk of opening old wounds that I like to think have since been repaired, the Janet Malcolm thread drove both me and Hank off here, I think, at least as commenters. I can’t speak for Hank, but when bad feelings develop between people who would probably get along famously in real life because of some Internet brouhaha, it doesn’t seem worth it. That’s how I felt, anyway.

Comment on Hello Out There by Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:16:26 +0000

Not sure I’d agree. We’re in on the ground floor of digital storytelling (for example Snow Fall), Twitter stories, etc. I think it’s an exciting time for narrative journalism. Another thing intrigues me and keeps me coming back to Gangrey. Some of the big name, first-gen narrative writers have gone on to book writing or editing or writing infrequently. So, I keep waiting to discover the next David Finkel, Anne Hull, Wil Haygood, Rick Bragg, Tom French, Lisa Pollak. Anyone else feel that way?

Comment on Hello Out There by T Lake

T Lake — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:18:19 +0000

But there’s some truth to what Tim Loh says. In 2006 and 2007, narrative journalism felt like a new toy. Every day I woke up and couldn’t wait to play with my new toy. I think this was true for some other people at that time too. Many of us were discovering it at the same time. And that’s part of the reason we checked Gangrey five times a day. Because we couldn’t get enough information and feedback about it.

I’m still excited today. But it’s different. My wife and I have been together 13 years. I love her more than ever. But it’s not like the whole month of October 2000, when I thought of nothing and no one else.

Comment on Hello Out There by Michael Brick

Michael Brick — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:50:36 +0000

As one of the few people ever to post critical comments here, I have definitely sensed this vibe. But haven’t some pretty major fun battles erupted from tangents and other non-critical instigating factors?
My memory’s not helping me out here. Ben, can you post a link to three or four of the most-commented-upon gangrey posts to remind us what has caught fire in the past?

Comment on Hello Out There by Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:41:13 +0000

I think narrative journalism is as popular as ever, maybe moreso, thanks to Gangrey, Longform and Nieman Storyboard. To be honest, I sometimes think the sensitivity level is pretty high among contributors here. There is a reluctance to talk about what doesn’t work even when we like a story. This is just one opinion, but a couple of times I’ve sensed that a criticism pissed off someone. I can understand it. The stories that get posted here take a lot out of the writer. The work is personal. It hurts to think that even a small part of a story went clunk. But, speaking from personal experience, I can’t think of a story I’ve written that came off without a clunk. I think this reluctance to criticize cuts down on the number of comments.

Comment on Hello Out There by Kruse

Kruse — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:31:41 +0000

I don’t think people who do this work a certain sort of good should feel the need to be falsely modest. I don’t think people who aspire to do this work some similar sort of good should feel the need to be bashful. All of us sit on a spectrum that’s not set in stone. We all want to do good work and it’s hard to do good work and doing it good one day doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to do it good the next day. So all of us can use the help that comes from quality shop talk in an open-hearted community. Right? Point being: I’ll post more. Sorry.

Comment on Hello Out There by Kruse

Kruse — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:22:21 +0000

So this “moment” for “narrative journalism” ended in 2009?

Comment on The Lonely Quiet by Kruse

Kruse — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:17:12 +0000

Wright’s totally IN his Italy story. Eli’s totally NOT in his Newtown story. They’re both totally IN CONTROL. Discuss.

Comment on When The Beautiful Game Turns Ugly by Kruse

Kruse — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:15:16 +0000

After this ran Wright tweeted a picture of his binders labeled ITALY #1 and ITALY #2. I don’t know how you could write this kind of story without them or something like them. I guess what I’m saying is a rigorous organizing mechanism. Even an outline if you want to use that word. Chris?

Comment on Hello Out There by Nigel

Nigel — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:04:41 +0000

An application for one thing or another just asked me to “include three websites which will help us understand you.” K. So i put in a personal one, another one with my stories and then was kind of stumped. And I was stumped until I went all the way back to the original Gangrey post, the one about the class Ben spoke to, June 1, 2005, and how we had to do better if we wanted jobs in 20 (now, gulp, 13) years.

This place still has meaning, a lot of meaning. I found it in 2007, just a couple years out of college, and it was my only kind of grad school. The coursework was in how I could apply the reading assignments to my everyday reporting.

Theory: If there are fewer commenters now, I don’t think it’s that the site has changed. We’ve changed. There was a moment for narrative journalism for reporters working at a certain caliber of newspaper, papers that maybe didn’t make narrative a mission before and have neglected it since. Using, well, Science, I’m going to irresponsibly guesstimate that that period lasted from 2003-2009. It followed the great work of the 90s, and it sought to do things that used cringey words like “storytelling” at brown-bags where we’d get, whatever, Jack Hart on the speakerphone and lob him questions. But people have moved on, changed jobs and changed careers. If 2005 looked bad to us then, I wonder what people would say about such opportunities at places like The Oregonian now.

One of my favorite reporters from that time now does college PR. Another is back where he began, on the daily cops beat. Others have branched out into sports beat-writing or analysis or even the op-ed page. The best answer is there’s probably some other website we haven’t even heard of that collects the work of a younger group of people. One that probably begins something like “So I’m speaking in a participation in government class in a high school in Newburgh, N.Y., and a kid at the back of the class raises his hand.”

There is still a thrill to getting a story posted here. It is still my first response to reading something that really excites me, and I hope that doesn’t change.