Two things are true here. The em dash shouldn’t automatically be a sign of AI writing. That said, they’re also been quite overused in recent years, which is probably causing them to be overrepresented in models.
You shouldn’t have that many asides to squeeze in, and you don’t need a em dash to make a sentence punchy. All tricks lose their power if you come to depend on them too much.
"A good deal of literary criticism serves only to reinforce a caste system which is as old as the intellectual snobbery which nurtured it. No one can be as intellectually slothful as a really smart person.”
Sour grapes. I've read enough of Stephen King in my youth to know that he is a very skilled writer, but he only produced large amounts of popular genre literature. The literature equivalent of enjoyable but forgettable popcorn movies. He wasn't taken seriously by literature criticism because he didn't produce anything sophisticated.
I just read The Body (basis for Stand By Me) and it was as personal and emotionally complex as any literary-approved fiction. It reminded me a lot of The Things They Carried, actually.
I think the biggest issue is that once he was pidgeonholed into being a "trope-master, scary fiction guy", no one would look at his writing any other way. And to be fair, MOST of his writing is overwrought genre stuff, but he has certainly developed into a fine craftsman at his best.
The reality is that most "literary" fiction is terrible and navel-gazing, seemingly written to land tenure somewhere or push some stupid literary trend that is just as vapid as any other publishing trend, only less fun. Historically, most fiction (or art in general) that persists was wildly successful in its time as a prerequisite.
> The reality is that most "literary" fiction is terrible and navel-gazing, seemingly written to land tenure somewhere or push some stupid literary trend that is just as vapid as any other publishing trend, only less fun.
I think that's just prejudice. Literary fiction simply has artistic or intellectual value beyond entertainment, and beyond using familiar tropes.
It's possible that King has some of these qualities somewhere. I have only read ten to fifteen of his novels. But that was enough that I could e.g. predict the ending of The Shining after about 50 pages.
Calling Stephen King enjoyable but forgettable I don't think works as an argument because I think it's pretty rare for an author to have 5+ novels that are so influential as to be cultural touchstones for multiple generations. The amount of fiction that he directly inspired or can trace their ideas back to one of Stephen King's novels is overwhelming.
Of all the criticisms I expected to be leveled at the man forgettable was perhaps the last one on my list.
What should you know? You might have a lot of fun tinkering with your own personal text editor. It’s like building your own permacomputing environment.
I started using Emacs org mode to help me make sense of a manuscript after struggling with Obsidian for some time. Emacs + writeroom mode has the feeling of a console typewriter. I hit a keybinding and poof, distractions are gone.
I used Emacs Writing Studio as a starting point and vibe-coded some of the Lisp with Claude.
You don’t have to go full-on one or the other. I still use both. Use .md files if you want Obsidian compatibility.
Hey! Thanks for the response!
The question becomes:
1. It it worth the investment for a young thinker/coder? Seems really cool!
2. comparing longevity of obsidian vs emacs
I personally try to avoid attempting to manipulate interest and instead capture existing interest. In this framing, clickbait is something headlines can be accused of.
You shouldn’t have that many asides to squeeze in, and you don’t need a em dash to make a sentence punchy. All tricks lose their power if you come to depend on them too much.