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smooth and superficial

2023-02-06

3 minute read

I think I know what's bothering me about Monocle.

I still get some inspiration from it, the breadth of the industries it profiles and the themes it picks are interesting and engaging. The actual writing though lacks anything real. They fall short of saying anything meaningful, or asking any really useful questions. It relies too much on the interviewee being able to say something engaging, and even then it falls short. I think it's partly because they talk to people who are often too hight up the chain of command. They don't have anything real to say, only vague ideas and ideals. The writers always try to wrap up with something pithy but it usually comes across as forced.

There longer articles are a little better, at least they can cover a variety of aspects there. The shorter one's are never skilled enough to shine. For writing that short I think you really need a poet's pen, you have to understand the gravity of each word and the form of the whole.

It's also so grossly written for rich cunts. They have no concern whatsoever for affordable design, always touting "quality" and "legacy", but it doesn't matter how good something is if only CEOs can afford it. The magazine is bookended in embarassing ads for luxury watches and clothing.

I found some great critique on Quora of all places:

I really want to like Monocle, but sadly I feel frustrated and intellectually betrayed every time I buy and try to read an issue. The scope is interesting and ambitious, but the writing is smooth and superficial (making it very hard to read an article from top to bottom), and the solutions presented are a baffling combination of shallowness and pretentiousness (eg, one cannot judge the state of a nation by how fashionable its army uniforms are). If Tyler Brûlé got a tough editor-in-chief, this could become a great publication. For now, it's pretentious posing as discerning.

and this funny question:

Is MONOCLE magazine's readership mostly gay/homosexual?

Lastly, this comment on this article

I think monocle's a turkey. its not smart enough for business readers, not cool enough for arty types, not clued in enough for the fashion crowd, its not a bit as insightful as it thinks it is, and what interest it reports is lost in pretension and vanity. its a shame, but I'd be a amazed if its still around this time next year in its current form.

Design wise, its far too one paced for a publication of that length. I have no objections to it's stripped down/no frills approach but please a big picture, a big headline SOMETHING to get the paces racing just a bit and break the monotony. monocle was supposed to be a celebration of print, it just feels like a poorly printed annual report. even the photography is uninventive and familiar.

As far as review style magazines go, Real Review does it so much better that there's really no competition.

why are you think so much about Monocle

I've been travelling again, after a lovely 2 day break in Buenos Aires, and it's a good size publication to read without getting too bogged down. At least they did that right. And I have got a couple of ideas, so that's exciting. I'm currently in the Bariloche airport, killing the time until my 15:30 bus to El Bolsón.

a map showing the driving directions from Bariloche to El Bolsón

I've got halfway through a 473ml can of Andina IPA and my TMJ is kicking up a real fuss. Every now and then this happens, alcohol hurts my temporomandibular joint, but it doesn't happen often enough for me to remember or avoid it.

what ideas?

okay thats it

I'm tired again. I saw somewhere a visual node system for making ffmpeg commands, I can't remember where. It looked awesome.

listening to

questions