Essays That Kill

Abstract

Killer Essays are staging a comeback. The beasts used to be virtually extinct. Few contemporaries knew them except from books. Since an cient times, literati had sung their praise. Many had sought a brush with their own Killer. Killers preyed on the best of minds only. It was a distinction to be taken on by one. The fortunes of the Killers changed at the turn of the last century. The Acad?mie Fran?aise came out against Killer Essays, denouncing them as de mauvais gout. Tasteless! I will get back later to what so motivated the august French body. Matters got worse for the Killers forever thereafter. Writers bunched up with academics and publishers, and Killer Essays were the victims. The wetlands of the interior were staked out as the creativity and information network built up. This deprived Killers of their natural habitat. Wherever they roamed, Essays were likely to be sighted. In formers were on the lookout throughout the provinces of the human mind and the most remote outposts of the soul. Informers would take no chance with an Essay turning wild. In no time would they lasso any Essay remotely resembling a Killer. They would make the Essay run in circles until it was broken in. It was not poaching of Essays so much as coaching of Essays the informers engaged in. Informers tamed Essays before they would strike. Teachers kept Essays from straying and gave them no chance to out grow and overpower writers. That arrangement rendered the world of Essays a cozy one. Writers ran no risk of being attacked and eaten alive by their own Essays. Readers were sure not to be troubled by Essays, or at least not much. With all their tact and good taste, Essays became to the educated what sermons were to churchgoers. Indeed, many churchgoers turned to Essays after the Pope threw out the tradi tional liturgy. Essays became Sunday reminders that truth comes in glimpses, and only to those who keep their minds open to serious reflection. The rich ritual of Essays combined the artsy with the mind ful and made them sanctuaries from the HERE AND NOW. Writers,