Wikipedia, Baker Style…
I dream often of writing for the New York Review of Books. Then I normally grab a muffin and forget it. But reading this article Nicholson Baker wrote about Wikipedia. Its warm, its funny, smart. Its like what every "I’d like to say a few words" after dinner speech should be.
Almost all NYBR pieces begin life as long book reviews. The best ones zoom out from there and use the book(s) in question to examine larger socio-cultural trends and issues. Here Baker’s ostensibly probing Wikipedia: The Missing Manual but really that’s just an excuse for the author to discuss Wikipedia’s charms and drawbacks in an ultimately sunny assessment.
A few metaphors, drawn as finely as facets on a gem.
In a few seconds you can look up, for instance, "Diogenes of Sinope," or
"turnip," or "Crazy Eddie," or "Bagoas," or "quadratic formula," or
"Bristol Beaufighter," or "squeegee," or "Sanford B. Dole," and you’ll
have knowledge you didn’t have before. It’s like some vast aerial city
with people walking briskly to and fro on catwalks, carrying picnic
baskets full of nutritious snacks.
Or…
It was like a giant community leaf-raking project in which everyone was
called a groundskeeper. Some brought very fancy professional metal
rakes, or even back-mounted leaf-blowing systems, and some were just
kids thrashing away with the sides of their feet or stuffing handfuls
in the pockets of their sweatshirts, but all the leaves they brought to
the pile were appreciated. And the pile grew and everyone jumped up and
down in it having a wonderful time. And it grew some more, and it
became the biggest leaf pile anyone had ever seen anywhere, a world
wonder. And then self-promoted leaf-pile guards appeared, doubters and
deprecators who would look askance at your proffered handful and shake
their heads, saying that your leaves were too crumpled or too slimy or
too common, throwing them to the side.
Baker even creates an account and a mild obsession with editing and pruning articles. For someone who’s been known to spend a weekend finding the perfect album art for his iTunes library, I relate. And concur.
Nicholson Baker was the first real big author I ever met way back in 2001. This piece reminded me why I continue to like him.
Read it please. It is good.