Whew
: I’m glad I didn’t even know about the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. Seeing a picture of Ken Burns on the list of many speakers is enough to scare me away (or, actually, put me to sleep). Having pissed off (after having been pissed off by) the Nieman Reports, I doubt I’d be welcome anyway.
The opening speeches: “Keynote: David Halberstam — The Pleasures of What We Do
Ken Burns and David Halberstam — 5 Ws AND AN H — WHY… The Very Unscientific Art of Telling Baseball Stories.”
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I’m amazed — shocked, even — that I don’t see any presentation from a weblog writer. This is, after all, the ultimate in narrative writing: a nearly live narrative of life and news. It’s a new form of narrative. I’d think this crew should at least be curious about that.
: UPDATE: Poynter, to its credit, started a weblog for participants in the conference. This is the start of the first entry I read (and I post it now that I’ve awoken):
The wind whipped the snow around in swirling miniature tornadoes that lashed the trees and piled angled drifts against the windows that looked like forgotten sails. I found myself distracted by the drama of the weather, my eyes wandering to the windows to watch the endless rounds of the snowplows trying to keep the hotel drive clear.
As a Floridian experiencing her first Nor
