Death of a Race Horse

[stephenspower]

I thought I'd share this essay by WC Heinz, which is considered the Gettysburg Address of sports columns for its precision, poetry and awful effectiveness. The commentary below on how the piece works is spot on, especially when it comes to the use of facts and the lack of use of metaphor and adverbs.

» The Heinz Files: II Bronx Banter

It's really the ideal model for a flash story, imho. Are their any journalists writing sf/f? That'd be great conceit for a fantasy story in particular, reporting events instead of writing about them.

 

[skip.knox]

Thank you for that. American sports writing is one of the most underrated forms of modern literature, or was before it was abandoned by newspapers and magazines for the gray gruel spooned out to us these days.

The tributes to Heinz are also worth reading.