Profiles are a dying form.
The worst, of course, are pieces on movie stars, but the prevailing sycophancy and superficiality infect even stories on more substantive figures. The one reliable exception to this carnival of glossy glibness is the obituary. Maybe it's because it's hard to see the shape of a life whole until it's over, maybe it's just because death brings a final halt to access journalism, but obituaries seem to hit all the notes that standard profiles miss. They approach their subjects with dignity, but without fawning. They sort out the significant personal details from the irrelevant, realizing that not all love affairs are created equal.