Writing Should Be Powerful, But Real
As a guy who writes marketing materials for a living, I understand that if I fail to gain the reader’s attention, it doesn’t matter what I say because it’s going to remain invisible. Yet it’s just as bad, and possibly worse, to irritate the reader with outrageous assertions that insult the intelligence.
Actually, I really don’t know how to respond to this piece: “13 Beautiful Places to Visit Before You Die.” Is it somehow an attempt at humor?
I was amused that the first of the 13 is the Westin Maui Resort, which offers “a luau, courses in hula and lei making, and where all rooms come with flat-screen TVs, refrigerators and coffee machines.” Don’t you question the aesthetic sensibilities of anyone who would consider this one of the most beautiful places on Earth?
I also smiled at the title. What value is added by these last three words (before you die)? How much traveling does one expect to do after one dies? As singer-song-writer Todd Snider points out in one of the verses in his classic “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)“:
You’ll really get around
But how far can you travel
When you’re six feet underground?