Goose flies into the sunset: Reflections on the reporting game
So Goose is flying off into the sunset, or as the German poet Theodor Storm more elegantly put it:
Die Wandergans mit hartem schrei
Nur fliegt im Herbstennacht vorbei
Let’s hope it won’t be a permanent departure. Even though we punt a different population (due to financial constraints), Goose’s reports have been highly entertaining and informative - they will surely be missed. I notice others like JK are also feeling the strain and talking about taking a break. Having tried writing reports for a couple of months I can sympathise with the reasons given, and have put down a few thoughts on the whole process of reporting our activities.
The reports have are a lot of positives for the reader. They are not only entertaining - almost like reading a porn novel sometimes - but it is also extremely useful. Who’s hot and who’s not is very valuable information to stretch the mongering dollar. The addition of photos is an eye-opener for anyone who ever imagined that the DB pictures gave anything like a true representation of the goods on offer, and some of the photos are works of art in their own right. We have been very lucky to have so many hot tips of cut-price gems and ball-busting legends. Many of the reports are long and detailed, but even those that are short and to the point contain a lot of useful information. (Rather than give up completely, very short reports summarising your recommendations, Goose, would be really helpful).
For the writer, the situation is a bit more complex. Writing about these experiences is a kind of relief. The nature of the mongering world means that we have to live a kind of double life much of the time. Triumphs and tragedies in our punting experiences cannot be communicated to many of our friends, colleagues, partners. At last we have an audience, an outlet for expressing our hidden thoughts which cannot be shared with so many people in our lives. It is a chance to mull over these experiences, give them voice and be a bit creative too (I don’t mean fabrication, just describing the experiences in as memorable a way as possible).
One or two niggling concerns do arise though. The first time I checked out this forum I wondered if the reports we read are really true, or merely fantasies. There is no way of knowing if every detail is correct, but the more I read, the more I believe that they are more or less as they happened. The obvious adverts excepted, there would not really be any point in writing otherwise. So that is no longer a concern to me.
More worrying, it can definitely become a bit of an obsession, almost as though the report has a higher priority than the experience itself. A few days ago someone commented that they decided not to see a WG because their camera batteries were flat. I understand entirely - I too have sometimes decided not to try someone who would have been very enjoyable, but not much to write about, in favour of someone new with the possibility of pictures and something interesting to say. Is the report more important than the punt?
Lastly, the relationship with the agent and girls can compromise the impartiality of the report. If you were the food critic of a reputable newspaper, you would take great care to ensure that the restaurant people were not aware that you were a critic, otherwise of course you get special treatment, and would not see the place as it normally is. Similarly here, if the girl and the agent know that you will be writing a report that is potentially worth a lot of money, then it’s likely that you too will get special service, not get B+S, not get the black face and B grade service, which may well be waiting for the next in line. We’ve even heard talk recently of girls influencing what details go in a report - now it’s more like an ad. For a really mpartial report, the girl and the agent should not be aware that it is being made.
Anyway, those are a few thought. I confess too to feeling the strain of writing these missives, as the others have described, but hope to keep going for a while yet. As Goose flies off into the sunset, let’s hope it’s just a seasonal migration and he will return for a new dawn and a new chapter of sensational reports for his appreciative public. | |
