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A Letter From A Disgruntled New Subscriber To Medium

I’ve been misled, deceived, bamboozled, hoodwinked!

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Dear Editors (or if you’ve all been fired, remaining support staff. Or, barring that, whoever runs the coffee shop in the lobby):

I recently subscribed to your website as a direct result of something called the Medium Writers (Writer’s? Writers’?) Challenge.

The title of your esteemed contest should perhaps have been my first clue that all was not kosher in Mudville.

Although meant to be a “challenge” for writers, the top winning entries have proven to be a bit of a challenge for the reader, as well. Nonetheless, ignoring the pleas of my children for sustenance, I set aside an entire day during which I read the four champions, pausing only for those bodily functions which require one’s undivided attention.

The winning essays led me to believe that Medium was in fact similar to, say, The Atlantic, or The New Republic, but priced for the masses rather than the bobo elite presently holding sway over American culture.

I anticipated a compendium of long, thoughtfully written and peer-reviewed articles, as well as skillful (albeit overripe)…