Last Friday James Lileks published a column in the Star Tribune called “Godless Death or Sensible Joy Spirals.” I realize that this is meant to be a humorous piece, but it got me thinking: What is the purpose of publishing such innocuous content in the newspaper? I mean, why waste the column inches?
Then I thought about my reaction to the piece, which, at least initially, was anger. Admittedly this is probably not the response the piece is meant to evoke. It’s just my zealous environmentalism getting the best of me. But it worked. The article hooked me and I was drawn, not only to read the whole thing, but to look it up on their website for this post.
I can only conclude then, that this was a very successful column. I bet by the time this posts, there will be some responses in the editorial pages. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe articles like this are meant to engage us in a dialog–no matter how silly. No reaction to a newspaper article is a bad reaction. Any reaction at all is good as long as the reader is engaged in some way. After all, publishing papers is all about delivering readers to advertisers.