By extrapolation, I would say the articles are written by committee. Also, they make heavy use of copy-and-paste.
The people who write Watchtower articles - what do you know about them?
by truthseeker 27 Replies latest jw friends
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sonofapreacherman
Our CO did my dad a favour and had a word with me when It became obvious that I was fading away. Knowing that I had just started studying journalism at university, he asked if I would consider instead making my goal joining the Bethel writing dept. He would put in a good word for me once I had met the spiritual requirements. I just nodded and grinned (gritted my teeth?) at his suggestion.
Then he said that the writing department was an excellent training ground and that writers there had won several awards. My jaw dropped. Has anyone else heard of this?
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truthseeker
Interesting comments everyone, particularly Hillary_Step.
The articles do have a sterilised flavour to them. I note that most issues of the Awake have at least one, perhaps two articles in them that say, "From Awake! writer in England", or, "Awake correspondent in Finland."
I oftened wondered why individuals who submit personal articles are never named.
When writing an essay, a report or an article, it is comon practice to submit the name of the author, especially when using quotes. This gives credit to the original author and prevents plagirism.
I am a regular reader of Time and Newsweek - all articles submitted identify their authors.
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Dansk
On occasion I've actually been contacted by Brooklyn Bethel to help with information on wildlife for some of the more interesting articles
Since coming here I haven't been asked any more! Wonder why?
Ian
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Nathan Natas
From the book of Pandemoniums, Chapter One, verses 3 through 16:
3. In the beginning, the names of all the authors of Watchtowerdumblandiastan were attached to their articles, for this was the way of all flesh. This was during the days of Russell, when gnats walked the earth.
4. And Russell begat Rutherford, and pronounced it good.
5. And Rutherford continued to name the authors, for he was greatest amonst them, and a mighty man in bottle was he.
6. And in the fullness of time, Rutherford begat the mutant two headed Knorr/Franz.
7. Now Knorr was an organization man, and had little truck with bible doctrine or exegesis, which he cheerfully passed on to his hallucinating friend Freddy, he of the waking sleep class.
8. And Freddy wrote and wrote and wrote.
9. Seeing this, the mutant dual heart heart of Knorr grew fearful, for he could see the Franz half of himself getting all praise, and he, the Knorr half, was PRESIDENT, by cracky!
10. So Knorr half set forth a decree throughout Watchtowerdumblandiastan, that thenceforth NO AUTHOR should be named, so as to avoid "creature worship." ("They shall worship the organization," whispered Knorr half to his familiar.)
11. And the people of Watchtowerdumblandiastan bought it,
12. hook,
13. line,
14. and sinker.
15. And the Knorr half smiled.
16. "It's good to be king," he thought. And he died.
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cyber-sista
I have never known anyone in the writing department, but I have written the society about the many problems that occured in my congo and in a personal situation that I had with the elders and I really wonder who in the world writes these responses.
I wrote 2 very heavy letters to the society and asked them please for their help. I recieved a brief impersonal form letter that didn't address the whole issue of the congo problem, but it did side with me, or so I thought. The elders in my congo also received a copy the same letter, but didn't like the answer. I wrote the society again with the details of how the elders were arguing the societies letter and asked them once again to please help me (even though they had told me previously that a letter from the society would be a final answer). The elders with some help from some others in the Org wrote their own letter to the society. I never received an answer to my letter which was a desperate plea, but later an elder came to me and told me the society had written them and now agreed with their thinking, but what he said to me sounded absolutely insane and the elders never gave me a copy of this letter to (as if it was secret info for their eyes only) So who in the world writes these letters? When I recieved my first letter and showed it to a couple of people they felt as if it was almost like a letter from Jehovah himself. Who are these guys? By the way, so much for new light--the first letter I recieved had quotes from old WTs in it. When the elder told me a bit of what the 2nd elder's letter from the society said he gave me a partial quote from an old WT 61, which didn't even apply to anything that made any sense. It was at this point that I totally lost faith in the all benevolent society. Very sad that some would base their life decisions on one poorly written letter from some guy they don't know at a desk somewhere in Brooklyn.
By the way, I had commited no WT sin.
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hillary_step
I wrote an article which appeared in the Awake magazine in the 70's. I will not say which one as I do not want to draw attention to the individual and would prefer for the beauty of WTS literature to stand on its owns merits....
What I will say is that it dealt the the arts which was my trade. I remember making a comment regarding the great beauty of certain religious frescos in the Sistine Chapel. My comment was edited out....lol No artistic beauty exists of course outside of WTS illustrations, and the few JW artists who make a living painting landscapes without bearded figures in them.
Well, for all my freinds' I have left behind in the WTS here is a picture to give life your soul. Please make sure that you view this monument to grace, taken believe it or not from the Sistine Chapel, when no elder is looking over your shoulder...art is a very dangerous influence to the imprisoned spirit, don't you know...
HS
PS - Did you know that the word "freind" is actually spelled 'friend'?
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DanTheMan
When I first joined the JW's I never wondered about such things as this but as time went on I became more curious about the personalities behind the publications, as I knew that not all of the pubs could be written by one person, but at the same time it seemed to me that so much of what was written in the publications had unmistakeable stylistic similarities. It's like, Fred churned out such an incredible amount of writing in his day, and all those who are writers for the WT today were brought up on Freddy's writings, so I think they unconsciously model his style to this day.
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cyber-sista
The writers always seemed to be a bit bi-polar to me. Sometimes there will be an article that seems almost loving, such as something along the lines of working good towards all, showing pictures of some good JWs shoveling their elderly non-witness neigbors sidewalk, etc, etc...Seems like after those talks we'd all be floating around the hall feeling all syrupy and saying what a nice talk that was--how loving the Org is and blah, blah, blah....Then the next week--whammo--suddenly the elderly neighbor has sprouted horns and we should not even be speaking to or in anyway associating with people who are not approved members of the Org....It was all so confusing...
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Corvin
"What I will say is that it dealt the the arts which was my trade."
Dave, is that you . . . ?
