I didn't expect to enjoy this piece as much as I did, but there you have it. Here's a link to the profile I picked for the class to read this week: http://www.slate.com/id/2291929/pagenum/all/#p2
In fact, when I clicked on the page to read the story, I felt similar to how the profile's author, Vanessa Friedman, felt when she was asked to report on this story: cynical. How could a fluffy little piece on a professional hair stylist be of much interest to me? But just as Friedman's assumptions about Vidal Sassoon were proven wrong, so my expectations that this story would be boring and of no merit were disproven. Sassoon is an interesting character, and though Friedman doesn't go overly in-depth into his life, the details, large and small, she pulls out about him - that he vaguely knew Marlon Brando, was one of the first to become interested in Pilates as fitness, and completely reinvented the hairstyling profession to become the one that we now know - attract the reader's interest. He's a remarkable guy, and I think this illustrates well one of the tenets we've been told of profile writing - pick an interesting person to write about.
In addition, some of turns of phrase - Friedman's description of Sassoon as the "Bill Gates of hair" and the quotes she obtained - regarding Michelle Obama's hair - "Oh! What wonderful straightening techniques they have today" are well done. The author also creates an identifiable voice for herself that stands out, which is interesting to observe. This may be no profile of a serious event or person, and it's certainly no New Yorker profile - I decided against posting one of those after going through several 10 - 13 page long articles, seeing as we won't be writing pieces that long anyway - but it does paint an interesting, descriptive picture of a person, which is what a profile sets out to achieve.
Additionally, I found this while looking for profiles on the Nieman Storyboard, thought it might be an interesting read for people looking for more information on writing profiles: http://sonofboldventure.blogspot.com/2011/03/profile-writing-basics.html
So my main issue with this article is her mention of this cynical self. At the beginning of the article, I start to get a sense of what this means, but once the cyncial self goes under the table, the definition isn't completed. At the end of the piece, when she kicks her cynical self in the ribs, I was more than a little jarred. I didn't think that the author was dedicated enough to preserving herself as a character in this piece for her to be justified in bringing herself back in at the end, especially only to kick herself. At the same time, I think that her discussion of the restaurant's atmosphere and the pacing of her meal with Sassoon was really quite good, and I appreciated that as a platform for giving us a window into how Sassoon behaves. Eating does alter the way people interact with one another by its nature as an activity, so that worked for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great read.
I also liked the references to restaurant and the eating, it sort of kept me grounded and gave me a break from Sassoon's trip down memory lane. Although, I think that the author making herself a character really took away from the piece. I think I would've preferred to hear her voice as narrator rather than a character. The piece is pretty short as it is and I just didn't feel like her voice really added anything. I think that space could've been used to delve even deeper into Sassoon's past. I found myself really wanting to know more about his past or maybe how his training and experience effects how he judges public figures, like Kate Middleton and MIchelle Obama. Does he find it to be distracting? Or aggravating?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it was a really interesting read and I definitely learned about someone I'd never even heard of before.
I found the introduction to the piece particularly interesting because I started on the same page as the author as a lot of people probably did: "oh, it's about some snooty hair stylist". Then as the author warms to his subject so do I. While I'm still not that interested in hair styling I do become interested in this self made man who has progressed from an apprentice into having his own name on an empire.
ReplyDeleteThe narrative style works really well. I found myself weirdly interested in tomato soup and chopped salad (a pretty blah lunch). That was a nice real world twist that pulled me into the story when it turns out they were at this restaurant because he used to live above it and not because he wants to mingle with celebrities in front of a reporter.
I agree with Lauren that the author could have used her space more wisely by delving deeper into Vidal Sassoon's personality and character. I do not think that the author took a stance on Sassoon, which is fine in some cases, but this left me confused about why she kicked her "cynical self" in the ribs at the end of the meal. Was he charming, soft-spoken, outgoing, reserved? I left the article feeling like Sassoon was a pretty cool person, but I would have no idea how to approach him if I saw him wandering around New York. I also wanted to know some of the context of certain of his statements. For example, when Sassoon says "Oh! What wonderful straightening techniques they have today" about Michelle Obama, I wanted to know how his voice sounded. This statement seems strange coming from the mouth of an old white guy, and knowing more about how he expressed himself would have helped me read Sassoon as a character. This is something I will really try to keep in mind as I write my profile, and maybe some of you fiction writers can help us learn how to write about verbal and non-verbal cues without saying cheesy things like "he was sarcastic as he discussed local politics."
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ReplyDeleteEllen, I too was cynical that this article would be self-indulgent, but it turned out to be such a great read. I adore the quotes the writer uses to introduce him; they're sort of annoying, but strangely, simultaneously endearing. His claim that he is the American dream is softened by the explanation he adds that one must be "mad, or good, or both" to be doing something for 70 years. The sheer amount of time he's dedicated to hair is out of this world and beautifully captured. My new favorite word might also be "mediagenic." I also appreciate how fully the scene is captured, particularly in the paragraph about Sassoon getting lost in his stories - it captures the moment and the atmosphere that is created around him. For my final comment, I'd like to suggest that the appeal of this story might be in it's traditional rags-to-riches format. Not knocking it, just pointing it out. Nice pick!
ReplyDeleteI really felt like I got a sense of Vidal Sassoon in this piece. I also felt like I was sitting at lunch with them during the interview with the description of Sassoon ordering and the movement of food on their plates. But I also wondered, like Jon, why she put herself in the interview. While I did feel like I was sitting with them, I wasn't sure if I liked to feel that way or not. The description was good but if you are writing a profile about someone should it be in there? Maybe she was using it to introduce that he was a genuine, down to earth person by throwing in her cynical views of the restaurant choice so she chose to add it in there so her first impression could be shot down to show his sense of character. I don't know. But I know that I did like the way the interview flowed and how he would get "off topic." It gave the reader a good idea of who he was, he wasn't some snooty hair dresser, he has a lot of depth and interests outside of hair.
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