Reading Journal - December 10th

The Kindest Cut by Larissa MacFarquhar is a terrific example of a creative feature story, that to me, fits more into the category of creative non-fiction. Your comment on my last reading journal had me thinking, about how sticking to the truth provides creative limits. It's not necessarily a bad thing, because it can foster some incredible results. I noticed something different about this feature than others: the beginning of this article honed in on fantastic characterization of Wagner's character, a really great way to lead into the main idea of the story. We got a glimpse of his life, story, and his personality. I hate to say it again, but god it's good to know that we can be creative with journalism. To me, this story doesn't even feel like a news piece...(even though it technically isn't) it just feels more like a story. I'm really enjoying grasping that idea, because I feel like the possibilities with feature writing are endless! It's totally possible for me to insert some of my inner-creativity and flavor in my feature story, which makes me really happy.

As for the rest of this story, I think that MacFarquhar does an excellent job of creating an instant emotional connection with an already emotional subject. She writes in one section that the subject of kidney donors, especially through this internet site, sort of jumps in the role of destiny, by giving life back to someone who would otherwise have died. First, I have to commend her on finding such a subject to write about, because it's extremely thought provoking and interesting on multiple levels. There was a specific tone throughout the piece which was the only reason I didn't jump to the conclusion that this wasn't a news story at all and that is, that there was definitely a reporter feel to it. Because the subject seems to be something that people don't know too much about, the writer had to fill us in along the way. There was clearly much research done for this subject matter, because of all the new information that is being presented.

This feature was also another example of a microcosm story that got at a larger idea through the telling of multiple tales. There's a professional way to which this is done, with the introduction of each new character in their own "chapter" (but what it really is, is a break in the text that begins with a capitalized first sentence.) I think what really makes this story, is how well-told it is. It's very multi-faceted, and with that comes the struggle to keep the reader in check and not confused. I didn't feel confused for even a moment, because every possible place I could have been lost, was fully explained and articulated.

The last thing I want to comment on was how the characters carried a life of their own throughout the story. They were not dependent on the writer to present them and carry them through; on the contrary, each character carried itself through the story, so that it almost felt like there was no narrator. This is great, because when this is the case, the reader is able to just focus on the story, and not necessarily putting as many pieces together. I'd say that when that is the case, the writer has fully succeeded in presenting a story and its components.

I guess I focused on the character builds throughout this feature, but I was really fascinated by it because when I finished reading the article, it was the one thing that I was left thinking about, aside from the subject itself.