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Details emerge on Amtrak writers’ residency program
It seems to me that such an arrangement would sharply fail any ethics test of any reputable journalism outlet, be it for a travel essay or a reporting on Amtrak as a business or railroad operation. The only place this arrangement might be remotely plausible would be some human-interest piece in which Amtrak was only an incidental player, or some well-known novelist seeking background for his “next great American novel.”
Of course, this isn’t going to stop hordes of optimistic young “foamers” from applying to write a piece for their high school or college paper/blog…
Alexander, Realize this; Amtrak will be looking at the applicants social media DEMOGRAPHIC. I doubt its going to be a high school thrill ride. Journalism? Well this same thing was done in the 50’s for a few railroads, I see No problem with it as it’s just in the new media as opposed to news print.
It is a GOOD idea worth pursing at minimal cost to Amtrak.
Mitch’4
Unless I missed being the target of the arrow the story was aimed at…
like you may have also,…
the invited authors are thought to be able to make descriptions of things romantic, pleasantly arousing and exciting, inspiring, mystical and practical to be used as advert’s promoting train riding.
The trip up the Hudson river to North Dakota, the deal made on Strangers on a Train, from Hitchcock, the Italian “western” filmed in Spain, called Once Upon A Time In The West, 3:10 to Yuma, High Noon, From Russia With Love…you know from where the inspiration came.
In no way was the 20th Century Limited. This, I think, is a 21st Century (attempt at un-) Limited-(ing)…and making more ridership and thus, income.
Do the thoughts above make sense or cents?
As a professional PR hack of long standing, I have to hand it to Amtrak’s flacks for coming up with as grotesque a publicity gimmick as you can hope for without pseudo-celeb involvement.
This isn’t about “writing” it’s about a cheesy attempt to capture some social media trending points (an attempt which will probably fail) while disqualifying real writers who have better things to do with their creativity than chirp “look at me, look at me, see how important I am” 104 times a day.
Maybe, if he were still with us, David P. would be tweeting like the birdies do, but I doubt it. And if I’m right, he’d be on Amtrak’s contest blacklist. Hhmm, maybe not such a bad thing … we are, after all, judged by our enemies as well as our friends and it is Amtrak, the Joe Boardman/Barak Obama/Tea Party congress version of Amtrak, that is the enemy in question.
As a professional PR hack of long standing, I have to hand it to Amtrak’s flacks for coming up with as grotesque a publicity gimmick as you can hope for without pseudo-celeb involvement.
This isn’t about “writing” it’s about a cheesy attempt to capture some social media trending points (an attempt which will probably fail) while disqualifying real writers who have better things to do with their creativity than chirp “look at me, look at me, see how important I am” 104 times a day.
Maybe, if he were still with us, David P. would be tweeting like the birdies do, but I doubt it. And if I’m right, he’d be on Amtrak’s contest blacklist. Hhmm, maybe not such a bad thing … we are, after all, judged by our enemies as well as our friends and it is Amtrak, the Joe Boardman/Barak Obama/Tea Party congress version of Amtrak, that is the enemy in question.
As someone who loves trains and has also written and published several books I find this idea a bit bizarre. Travelling in a sleeping car is a relaxing vacation. Writing is hard and sometimes tedious work that requires concentration and access to your sources. I don’t think the two mix very well. It may be totally irrelevant but I’m somehow reminded of the fact that former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau decided that Quebec should separate from Canada during a trip from Montreal to Banff on the Canadian Pacific in 1965. Train travel does provide time for contemplation, with possibly mixed results, but not for serious writing.
OK, “Writers in Residence” is too grand a title for what is obviously a way to get younger people more interested in riding the trains. I see no harm in it and won’t quibble about naming the program. I don’t use any of the social media - I’m 61 - but I do love trains and welcome support for them from any quarter.