Point, no point, and Kolkata

I was listening to my father talk to a group of journalists at a function organized by "Paila," an NGO interested in diverse activities, where he told the journalists that they ought to write clearly enough that the first sentence in their articles should contain their thesis or argument.

I disagree, but from a privileged position: I have a column where I specifically refrain from doing that. I attempt to write lyrically. There can't be a flow to the sentences unless the images in consecutive sentences are in harmony. If that harmony is sustained/ruptured through a design, the images form a specific argument of their own.

For this reason, I consider long descriptions as what one might call "thesis." The choices that go in constructing a description aren't without calculation, and therefore they present a specif stance on a problem: sociological, aesthetic, rhetorical. I don't want to put the thesis in the first sentence because I am not writing a college paper or a report for an NGO. I don't want to explain anything to the people in specific words, because guiding the thoughts of a reader is more satisfying.

On a separate note: As soon as I get done with my obligations for QC, I am going to leave for Kolkata. I will translate "Sanbidhan ma Dalit" by Subhash Darnal, try to write some movie scenes, and keep writing for the Kathmandu Post column.