What Is It Like to Butcher Pigs?

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I will eat pork, I'll eat bacon, I'll have an occasional burger and it's always struck me that clearly in most of America we are so detached from what it was like to raise these animals. What is it like when you actually helped to raise that animal? Like what do you take away from that experience? It's especially weird because you get know each animal quite individually,. Even the chickens which most people think of as not being quite that separate as animals in a way.

In Episode #18, we explore becoming a better writer. We’re joined by Verlyn Klinkenborg, author and Yale professor. We cover learning from farm life and work, finding rhythm in writing, and debunking writing cliches.

“So what I do now is essentially help students escape from their education. That's my enterprise every year. And it's always fun, because they escape quite readily. They all know that what they're making in their classes is an artificial product that doesn't actually have any particular interest for anyone except them.” – Verlyn Klinkenborg

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/verlyn-klinkenborg-outliers-show-notes

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/verlyn-klinkenborg-outliers-transcript

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to becoming a better writer. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction
(00:01:54) – Rural life and the “home place”
(00:04:50) – Raising animals and eating meat
(00:11:07) – Learnings from farm life and work
(00:15:35) – Verlyn’s reading habits
(00:28:40) – Verlyn’s book Several Short Sentences About Writing
(00:34:49) – What is academic prose?
(00:40:08) – Why people should use shorter sentences in writing
(00:44:43) – Finding rhythm in writing
(00:48:49) – Self authorization and noticing the world around you
(00:55:26) – Writing cliches that are untrue
(01:06:43) – Writing is rooted in experience more than language

ABOUT SEVERAL SHORT SENTENCES ABOUT WRITING

Verlyn Klinkenborg teaches creative writing at Yale University, and was a member of the editorial board of The New York Times for 16 years. His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, and National Geographic, and he has authored several books, including Several Short Sentences About Writing. This book aims to debunk general cliches about writing and creativity and remove obstacles keeping us from clear self-expression.

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