With or without reason, journalism is in a crisis. Crisis of credibility, of personnel, lack of awareness about what a world without journalists may look like. I´ve read Solnit´s Unfathomable City and her reports about New Orleans - its divisions, failures and social fractures. Her short Call Them by Their True Names was another account of America´s fight with its own demons.
Through writing she reveals herself, her old memories and lost childhood encounters. In one of her essays, she looks herself in the mirror noticing not only the time passt but also her present, her changes. Serious genuine writing cannot avoid being personal, which means 1st person-oriented. But through her own experiences the other subjects she is writing about can be better framed and understood.
Living in a poor part of the city is more than a geographical detail, it is part of her effort to understand how poor people may live and exist. It is a journalistic effort which require time and dedication and defines her choice of topics featured as well.
As an extension of this logic, she can exist and account about what a gender-fuelled society mean for a woman, her encounters as a woman with the enemies of her womanhood.
Her journalistic creed requires precision and high alert. Empathy is limited by her quest for truth and the choice of words defining the situation as it is and as it is described by those experiencing it. In the end, the final frame is a fragment of reality, a subjective sequence as reported by the journalist aiming at reflecting objectively the truth.
I will continue to delve into Solnit´s works because of both the writing and the professional inspiration. It is also a reminder that there are still voices devoted to report from all ways of life, everyday life of everyday people.
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