Okay, I’m going to complain about something really inconsequential. But that’s okay, because what else is a blog for?
Anyway:
I love the New Yorker, but one thing that annoys me is that each article in the magazine has two different subtitles that are slightly different but essentially the same. The Table of Contents uses one subtitle, and the first page of the an article uses a different subtitle. What’s the point? Why not just use the same subtitle?
Some examples from the current issue:
Murdoch’s Game
Subtitle 1: A mogul’s unpredictable politics.
Subtitle 2: Will he move left in 2008?
It Should Happen to You
Subtitle 1: Fame, the YouTube way.
Subtitle 2: The anxieties of YouTube fame.
Paranoid Style
Subtitle 1: Conspiracy-theory journalism since 9/11.
Subtitle 2: How conspiract theories become news.
The Crusader
Subtitle 1: A magazine editor takes on the monarchy.
Subtitle 2: A Moroccan journalist takes on the King.
Tabloid Days
Subtitle 1: A gutter-press apprenticeship.
Subtitle 2: An apprenticeship in the gutter.
The Formula
Subtitle 1: Could a computer predict movie hits?
Subtitle 2: What if you built a machine to predict hit movies?
I really don’t see the point of this.
In other words:
I’m not sure what the point is.
Maybe they’re putting to practice that old creative writing rule: If you’re going to repeat something, then vary it a little bit, shake it up, to make it more intersting the second time?