17. Of course there are many things a twitter essay CAN'T do. For something like @tanehisicoates's Case for Reparations, you need article
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Replying to @HeerJeet
18. What the twitter essay does allow is not the long explanatory article but the quick flashes of thought, sudden insights worth sharing.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
19. There's a quote from T.W. Adorno that would be perfect right now, but I can't find it. It's about footnotes.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
20. (From memory) Adorno on footnotes: a form where fleeting, digressive thought can find fitful life not available in main text.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
21. What Adorno said about footnotes is true of tweets as well: it's a form for thoughts that might not live elsewhere.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
22. New forms are sometimes worth exploring for their own sake: for the pleasure of learning & mastering their rules & experimenting.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
23. I won't say twitter essay are for everyone. If you try it and don't like it, that's fine too. It's a diverse world.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
24. And I'm confident that other uses of twitter will remain robust. Hitler Cat pictures aren't going anywhere.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
25. In sum, there is probably something more productive to complain about than fact some clown on twitter likes to number his sentences.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
Jeet Heer Retweeted andrew kurjata
26. A reasonable question from
@akurjata:https://twitter.com/akurjata/status/529769177297342464 …Jeet Heer added,
3 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
27. Answer to @akurjata's question about how searchable twitter essays are: I try to storify the major ones that seem worth preserving.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
28. Storify can catch most of a twitter essay, although hard to get the call and response of audience interaction.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
29. But fact that a twitter essay can't be fully preserved isn't necessarily a fault. It's a snowflake art form: unique & transitory.
3 replies 11 retweets 9 likes - Show replies
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