William Finnegan, acclaimed author and journalist for the New Yorker, opened his Russell House lecture with advice for future journalists. Avoid, he said, the “airplane theory of a story.” Calmly, this Distinguished Writer doled out advice and recounted stories from his varied experiences in writing and reporting.
Finnegan’s editor coined the term “airplane theory” to describe the way a journalist might preconceive a story while traveling in a plane to the location. Upon arrival, the writer believes that the bulk of the work has already been done—before ever landing.
“For feature stories, if you can approach a subject without trying to determine its meaning or its shape beforehand, if you can be open to new information, you are more likely to find a story that’s fresh, that’s surprising, that’s news in the deeper sense,” Finnegan said.
He cited three examples of projects where he had to “largely abandon the paradigms” he had brought to them.
Continuing with his discussion of journalism and the unexpected things a writer might face, Finnegan read a piece he had published in the New Yorker nearly a decade ago.
“Letters from Mogadishu” describes the situation in Somalia after the United Nations withdrew in the 1990s. While Western news sources had led him to expect the country was in a state of chaos, he found instead a “bustling” nation. Somalia had developed, he said, its own form of order that the major Western media companies often overlooked. Finnegan said that while many of the problems that did exist in the country continue to this day, few reporters have continued to cover Somalia since the UN left.
Finnegan’s recent book “Cold New World” appears on the syllabus for English 163, “Distinguished Writers on Writing.” The students from this class came in droves to hear the author speak.
“Cold New World” discusses the true stories of four young people in some of the United States’ poorest communities. One piece tells the tale of a 16-year old drug dealer in New Haven, Conn. Finnegan essentially argues that these children of poverty are not responsible for the situations in which they find themselves, that there is simply no infrastructure available to help them. New Haven is one of the poorest cities in the country and has, in recent years, declined considerably both economically and socially. Finnegan said the black population has been marginalized and crime-ridden while Yale has become a thriving microcosm within the city.
The New York Times nominated “Cold New World” for Notable Book of the Year (1998). English 163 students who are currently reading the book expressed their admiration for his style as a writer and his courage as a journalist.
“From reading the book and then hearing him speak, you can really see that [Finnegan] is a socially-conscious journalist,” said Adam Poswolsky ’05. “He’s looking for the story that others aren’t writing, that others aren’t willing to portray: that which is not apparent. He definitely willing to make a case for the oppressed, for those without power.”
“He has the ability to talk about a totally foreign place in terms that you can understand and also writes about cities in your own backyard in a way that makes them seem as foreign as war torn African countries,” said Emma Ruby-Sachs ’04.
In addition to Wesleyan students, people from around the area came to hear Finnegan speak. The varied public suggests that lectures help connect Wesleyan with the surrounding community.
Bill Conroy, who heard about the lecture through a Hartford book discussion group, said he “enjoyed Mr. Finnegan’s speech on his writing process and overcoming his preconceived ideas. ”
This was Conroy’s first Wesleyan lecture.
“If I knew it was going to be this good,” he said, “I would have brought at least one friend who I know would have liked it.”
Chinue Govan, a Hartford-based writer who came to the lecture after seeing an advertisement in the Advocate, agreed with Finnegan’s advice about the “airplane theory” problem of journalism.
“[Sometimes as a writer] you end up with an end product that reverses what you originally thought you were going to do,” Govan said
Last week, Finnegan published an article about the London Underground in the New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1987. His piece about Miami Cubans is scheduled to run in the magazine next week. He is the author of four books, including “Cold New World.”
The next Distinguished Writers Series reading will be held on March 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Russell house, featuring Alexander Chee, Paul LaFarge, John Vincent and Elizabeth Willis. For information on upcoming lectures and readings on campus visit http://events.wesleyan.edu.
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