River algorithms and the essay

Via Arts & Letters Daily, a long essay in praise of the essay form in its circuitous truth-seeking glory, from which this struck me:

The Meander (aka Menderes) is a river in Turkey. As you might expect, it winds all over the place. But it doesn’t do this out of frivolity. The path it has discovered is the most economical route to the sea. [6]

The river’s algorithm is simple. At each step, flow down. For the essayist this translates to: flow interesting. Of all the places to go next, choose the most interesting.

— Paul Graham, "The Age of the Essay"

I wish I’d had this to hand to my students back when I was teaching first-year writing, because that’s exactly what I always wanted them to understand, but could never quite manage to convey. But I’ll keep "at each step, flow down" at the back of my head, and see what it does for my own writing.

2 Responses to “River algorithms and the essay”

  1. cindy says:

    Nice. And still so many freshman writing instructors try to beat this out of students by imposing rigid essay structures on them (like our old favorite, the 5-P essay, of which you’ve written so beautifully and snarkfully in the past).

  2. nyarlathotep says:

    This is great! Thanks. I’m going to give this to my students.