WSJ Acknowledges Editors' Worth

In her Wall Street Journal column, "Book Lover," Cynthia Crossen writes that a good editor is, like a good man, hard to find.

After complaining that A Fraction of a Whole, by Steve Toltz, is about a hundred pages too long, Ms. Crossen says:

Editors are the invisible heroes of the publishing industry, and as publishing companies cut corners, they cut editors. On the most basic level, that means more typos, grammatical errors and factual contradictions. A novel I read recently had a character die in two different years. How could no one have noticed? Because the person whose job used to be Prissy Fuss has been let go. A little slippage of the rules here or there isn't going to hurt anyone, I imagine the deciders deciding.

But without strong editors, writers are like cars with accelerators but no brakes. While reading many of Mr. Toltz's long passages, I pictured him at his computer (or typewriter), entertaining himself with his own wit and wisdom. That's as it should be. Then an editor should tell him, "Steve, you're a great writer (always start with the praise), but let's do some judicious whittling and make this fabulous book (more praise) even better." It's hard work for both author and editor, but it's only fair to those of us who still invest in books.

Comments

[Mike]

The idea that it's hard to find "a good man" is, like other played stereotypes, lazy comedy.

[Editrix]

Dear Mike,

You'll get no argument from me. I wrote that post when only half of my brain was thinking about what I was typing; the other half was thinking about the pot of pasta I was heating on the stove and hoping it wouldn't burn. (It did.)

My apologies to the good men out there who might have been offended.

Sincerely,
-Ed.

[Mike]

I wasn't offended by the "good man" comment as much as I was offended that such an intelligent person would use such a boring cliche. There are a lot of low-quality men out there, and they're the ones laughing at cliches.

I think your burned pasta was a sign from the Grammar Gods. All is forgiven.

[JD]

It may indeed be hard for a woman to find a good man. If so, that says a lot about the woman and nothing about the good man.

Anyway. My former chief sub used to refer to writers having 'one hand on their keyboard and the other on their genitalia'. That's what I thought of with your quote about Mr Tolz "entertaining himself with his own wit and wisdom".