About Me

Nathan Leslie’s six books of fiction include Madre, Believers and Drivers. He is also the author of Night Sweat, a poetry collection. His first novel, Tommy Twice, will be published by Atticus Books later this year. His short stories, essays and poems have appeared in many literary magazines including Boulevard, Shenandoah, North American Review, and Cimarron Review. He was series editor for The Best of the Web anthology 2008 and 2009 (Dzanc Books) and edited fiction for Pedestal Magazine for five years. His website is www.nathanleslie.com.

Confessions of a Luddite

Published on the Atticus Books page:

http://atticusbooksonline.com/composition-books-confessions-of-a-luddite

What's In A Name?

I've toyed with the concept of this blog for months now. Feeling as if I've been missing out on the whole blogging thing, I initially wanted to entitle my blog "The Luddite Screed," inspired by my squint-eyed gander at technology. I still like the title, but after brainstorming about possible entries I realized I just don't have enough material--did I want technology to be the entire subject of a blog? I will write some of these sorts of entries, but I don't feel like becoming simply some kind of alternative version of Wired--casting a caustic view on the various gadgets we surround ourselves with.


Then I thought I might call the blog "Stuff on Stuff," which strikes me as sort of casual and potentially quirky. I wrote an entry about my favorite pair of pants, then realized I don't have enough interest in just writing about things. I've been writing a column for Press 1 for the past year, called Suburban Bored. I'm already reflecting on the domestic life. I mean, would I go around my house cataloguing/analyzing the different things I own and their meaning? I couldn't visualize this as the sole subject of my blog.


I've decided on the title "Slow Writing" as a result of its multiple meanings. This has several connotations to me: 1. The phrase "Slow Food" is already in the common parlance; the phrase has come to mean food which is home-made, carefully prepared (as opposed to fast food). I like the home-made parallel--the best writing, like the best food, is "organic" (in the broad definition of the word). 2. There is a common perception amongst a segment of the writing community that the more productive one is the better. The epitome of this view is NaNoWriMo. While I like the concept of a month of writing as a device to motivate writers to, you know, write, I'd like to actually see less writing-for-the-sake-of-writing, and slower writing. 3. As a corollary to #2, the phrase "Slow Writing" confers a certain power on the carefully constructed sentence, the carefully pondered word. More is certainly not more (less isn't necessarily either); writers should consider the potency of what they might say.


That said, it may be that the title ends up being ironic. I sure do write a lot.


Don't mean to kick this blog off on such a weighty note, but just to clarify: the intent of the name is not to suggest that I'm some kind of literary sloth, or that you should be. I'm simply suggesting that aesthetically I will be coming from the standpoint of (I hope) careful deliberation over deep fried literary McNuggets. Whatevs, you get the gist.