Great Moments in Journalism: Invitation to a Hanging
Great Moments in Journalism are submitted by readers, and can be sent to this address. Today's Moment is actually the lede to the article we mentioned yesterday concerning Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch. We weren't sure where this metaphor was going, but it certainly wasn't here:
In a Paris Review interview almost half a century ago, Ernest Hemingway offered a tip to the would-be writer in search of material: "Let's say that he should go out and hang himself because he finds that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he should be cut down with mercy ... At least he will have the story of the hanging to go on with."
It is safe to assume the advice was meant to be taken loosely, but Philip Gourevitch entered into the spirit more boldly than most when, in May 1995, he skipped the hanging and went straight to a genocide.
