Guilt by Kinship?
Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:34 am
For those interested in discussing the important question of whether it's appropriate (and perhaps even necessary) to criticize and ridicule my son essentially because he's my son -- nobody can seriously argue that he would be drawing fire here were he unrelated to me -- here are some relevant facts:
First of all, according to Wikipedia, I have no son bearing the name that appeared in the Deseret News.
Beyond that, though, the young man who wrote an article and a movie review for the Deseret News didn't get a job with them through nepotism because he didn't get a job with them. He simply volunteered to write a movie review, was (somewhat to his disappointment) assigned Yogi Bear, attended a preview of the film, and wrote a review that was accepted. After that, he submitted the piece on Christmas Eve ghost stories, and it too was accepted. Whether he's been paid for either or both of them, I don't know. I suspect not. (One often has to begin in the mail room.) I expect that he'll write and submit more articles in the future. I certainly hope so. He's an undergraduate, by the way, engaged to be married. I love him very much.
As to his allegedly wretched prose style, I'll have to leave the verdict on that to his (and my) betters. (I thought it was pretty good, myself, and perfectly fine for the job it was supposed to do, and I liked the content of both articles.) Implicitly, according to this board's augurs of fine style, they are qualified by their own superior writing abilities and notable literary achievements to pass harsh public judgment on this very young man. Having read none of their sublime prose and knowing embarrassingly little about their notable attainments in literature, I suppose I'll have to take that on faith. (See Mark 9:24.)
First of all, according to Wikipedia, I have no son bearing the name that appeared in the Deseret News.
Beyond that, though, the young man who wrote an article and a movie review for the Deseret News didn't get a job with them through nepotism because he didn't get a job with them. He simply volunteered to write a movie review, was (somewhat to his disappointment) assigned Yogi Bear, attended a preview of the film, and wrote a review that was accepted. After that, he submitted the piece on Christmas Eve ghost stories, and it too was accepted. Whether he's been paid for either or both of them, I don't know. I suspect not. (One often has to begin in the mail room.) I expect that he'll write and submit more articles in the future. I certainly hope so. He's an undergraduate, by the way, engaged to be married. I love him very much.
As to his allegedly wretched prose style, I'll have to leave the verdict on that to his (and my) betters. (I thought it was pretty good, myself, and perfectly fine for the job it was supposed to do, and I liked the content of both articles.) Implicitly, according to this board's augurs of fine style, they are qualified by their own superior writing abilities and notable literary achievements to pass harsh public judgment on this very young man. Having read none of their sublime prose and knowing embarrassingly little about their notable attainments in literature, I suppose I'll have to take that on faith. (See Mark 9:24.)