Today The Market Herald launches Art of the Essay, a new column dedicated to commentary, analysis, and opinion.
The word ‘essay’ comes from the Latin word ‘exagium’, meaning the presentation of a case, and will induce different reflexes for different people. For some it’s a massive dry heave rooted in high school trauma. But for those with some success in taming it, the reaction is one of joy in finding freedom, a voice.
The narrative essay hit its peak in the 60s and 70s thanks to the literary talents of writers like Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, and Gay Talese. Classics like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Frank Sinatra Has a Cold have stood the test of time and informed the possibilities contemplated by generations of young aspiring writers.
That is the charm and the challenge of the essay. It’s an expansive form with its own nuances that allow for the exploration of any topic imaginable. But whether it’s about the ghostly pressures that drive inflation, failings in foreign policy, or the music of Dolly Parton, the best always treat these ideas less as an underlying focus and more as a vehicle for tackling life’s biggest questions. The unavoidable beauty and terrible ugliness of the human condition: Where am I going? What do I stand for? Who am I? Who are you?
Hence, Art of the Essay. The world is a confusing place. Now more than ever, there is a need to try and cut through the mess; to try and make sense in some way of the slow-moving storm that’s come to envelope us.
How, you might ask, do we accomplish that? We attempt it by deploying the voice-giving qualities of the essay. That means deploying balanced, objective, well-founded opinions from people capable of giving a rational explanation for the way they view the world, whatever that might be. It means being open to those ideas, even if we don’t agree with them. It means no one really, truly knows what’s going on — so let’s try and figure it out together. And if, in the process, we can bring back some of what journalism used to be all those years ago. . . even better.