What in life do you feel is underrated or overrated? Say by your readers. Having real human contact rather than the social media that's become in our atomized postmodern lives, a substitute for real contact. How important do you think Dear Abby was for American life? Both of their obits were fascinatingly important and remained so retrospectively as barometers of the way the country was going to go.
The stereotypical obituary is a formulaic recitation of facts — dry, boring, and without craft. But Margalit Fox has shown the genre can produce some of the most memorable and moving stories in journalism. Exploiting its “pure narrative arc,” Fox has penned over 1,200 obituaries, covering well-known and obscure subjects with equal aplomb.
In her conversation with Tyler Cowen, Fox reveals not only the process for writing an obituary, but her thoughts on life, death, storytelling, puzzle-solving, her favorite cellist, and how it came to be that an economist sang opera 86 times at the Met.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
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