I don't know if any of you have this little beauty on your book shelf or not, but The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White is one of those books, more of a manual, that many writers cite as the end-all-be-all correct way to write. Wanda gave me a copy when I was in the Wilkes writing program and it has served me well. Funny, the main thrust of the book has to be that, like Calvin Klein, brevity rules. Faulker famously quipped that you must be able to "kill your darlings," referring to the necessary skill of being able to cut from your prose that which you think is so clever, witty, or elegant but may not fit with the piece you are writing--or worse yet, may not actually be any of those things. But clearly E.B. and Billy weren't referring to men of our aptitude and supreme vocabulary because we find great pleasure in qualifiers and ornamental language. As I read this article on Slate, I thought you all would enjoy it too. I particularly like how this writer dissects sentences and explains how their meaning would change had words simply been positioned differently. I hope this finds you all in good health and good nature. I truly wish I could have been involved in the Portrait discussion as Oscar Wilde was a tremendous writer who somehow turned a play into a novel with style and grace. Great selection, Brother Pompous. I enjoyed it thoroughly. (I probably didn't need the "thoroughly," but we are the M-O-freakin'-P.
The Importance of Sentence Construction
7 comments:
I agree that it is almost an oxymoron to put William Faulkner in the same sentence as brevity. And perhaps I took some liberty with that statement. The "kill your darlings" mantra was more about being able to take criticism and remove the things from your writing those things to which you were most attached. I often heard this from my professors at Wilkes as I often thought my analogies were so brilliant. More often the analogy would actually be a good one, but I'd end up cutting a whole section and then trying to insert the cleverness into another section in which it did not belong. So it was a stretch to put that quote in this context, but the point was not lost.
Suffice it to say, there are some things, (like comparing good writing to a tsunami?), that just don't work and need to be cut. Just kidding, Pompous. I very much enjoyed your 127-word sentence.
I appreciated the article. I do find it somewhat unusual that Faulkner can be mentioned in any discussion speaking to the attributes of brevity in writing!
I especially agreed with george Orwell's comment that good prose is like a windowpane.
While I know it oddly true that the strength of a sentance is fortified by brevity, for me as a reader looking through the windowpane, I appreciate in debth descriptions from the gramatical easel that color codes my imagination, building strong character development for the reader to which only seems possible with a tidal wave length of words forming lengthly sentances that carry the reader to places unknown, taking risks never ventured, via a word surge of power that picks up unnecessary words like broken off tree limbs from the sunami-like efforts of the writer seeking to add his flare and signature to a passage that might be otherwise be considered standard prose fare for at the risk of brevity may be carried back out to sea forever forgotten. Ha!! Nice post von Pluma.
I couldn't disagree more Pompous. Your 127 word sentence only reassures me of the opinion that concise writing is quality writing. My eyes pretty much glazed over the words about halfway through your sentence as they often do when writing becomes too detailed. I must say though that your hyperbole was well received and I had quite a chuckle.
With but a small amount of guidance via the words of an author, our imagination is capable of a much better story than someone's words could ever tell. I believe that the true brilliance of an author is his ability to activate our imagination and lose ourselves in a story. When I am working too hard at deciphering the words this is not accomplished for me. Not to say that eloquent writing such as that of Mr. Wilde is not necessary or enjoyable, for I feel that it is. Most of what Wilde penned, though detailed at times, was quite necessary to take the reader to the place Wilde hoped he would go. He was a master of getting the reader's senses involved in the story which only fueled my imagination to further depths! I think Machiaveli's brevity was masterful in The Prince and am thankful he was able to "kill the darlings" in his work for I would have surely given up on reading it. The value of brevity might more clearly be shown in one's verbal language. How often do we find our minds wandering to other places as our communication partner goes on and on about a topic for which our interest was exhausted in the first few minutes of conversation? I for one feel that we could use a little more brevity in this world...the problem may lie in the fact that this is more easily said than done and the skill required to write (or speak) in such a way is far greater than most of us are capable.
~Master Lieb
I enjoy our blog. It makes my coxcomb stand on end. That being said, I wanted to elaborate further in the discussion of long sentences (LS). I humbly acknowledge LS was not the plunger in VP’s stirring article. But if can indulge me the favor of a few additional moments of your time and give consideration of my extemporaneous reflections on an important element of the prose we seek to ventilate as a storied group of truth seekers.
While I appreciate the value of brevity in language, and admit perhaps the greatest address of all time was simply conveyed in 272 words; a LS by many a standard.
But brevity was needed in Lincoln’s address. He was speaking powerful words, and he had a gift to eloquently bear the country’s soul. He wasn’t writing a novel.
I agree with Master Lieb that a reader or listener can easily lose thoughts due to an abundance of time and or words. But I say don’t blame the length of the sentence blame the crafter of the tangled cobweb of words. For so it is I believe that the colorful descriptive words stretching into lengthy sentences catch the varied thoughts flying through a readers mind. Short sentences not flow to me. I enjoy long sentences in novels; I don’t look forward to the stop and start when I am trying to get the picture. A period to me is like a stop sign on the road; a grammar rule for the road. Most often I prefer to keep ‘er moving. I have the same feeling when I read. To me long sentences create a puzzle-like image that I am anxious to see. Below is an example from Virginia Woolf’s essay, “On Being Ill”. Thank god for LSs. I think a period anywhere would ruin it.
Considering how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change that it brings, how astonishing, when the lights of health go down, the undiscovered countries that are then disclosed, what wastes and deserts of the soul a slight attack of influenza brings to view, what precipices and lawns sprinkled with bright flowers a little rise of temperature reveals, what ancient and obdurate oaks are uprooted in us by the act of sickness, how we go down into the pit of death and feel the water of annihilation close above our heads and wake thinking to find ourselves in the presence of the angels and harpers when we have a tooth out and come to the surface in the dentist’s arm-chair and confuse his “Rinse the Mouth —- rinse the mouth” with the greeting of the Deity stooping from the floor of Heaven to welcome us – when we think of this, as we are frequently forced to think of it, it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love and battle and jealousy among the prime themes of literature.”
Can I be any more Pompous
I enjoy our blog. It makes my coxcomb stand on end. That being said, I wanted to elaborate further in the discussion of long sentences (LS). I humbly acknowledge LS was not the plunger in VP’s stirring article. But if can indulge me the favor of a few additional moments of your time and give consideration of my extemporaneous reflections on an important element of the prose we seek to ventilate as a storied group of truth seekers.
While I appreciate the value of brevity in language, and admit perhaps the greatest address of all time was simply conveyed in 272 words; a LS by many a standard.
But brevity was needed in Lincoln’s address. He was speaking powerful words, and he had a gift to eloquently bear the country’s soul. He wasn’t writing a novel.
I agree with Master Lieb that a reader or listener can easily lose thoughts due to an abundance of time and or words. But I say don’t blame the length of the sentence blame the crafter of the tangled cobweb of words. For so it is I believe that the colorful descriptive words stretching into lengthy sentences catch the varied thoughts flying through a readers mind. Short sentences not flow to me. I enjoy long sentences in novels; I don’t look forward to the stop and start when I am trying to get the picture. A period to me is like a stop sign on the road; a grammar rule for the road. Most often I prefer to keep ‘er moving. I have the same feeling when I read. To me long sentences create a puzzle-like image that I am anxious to see. Below is an example from Virginia Woolf’s essay, “On Being Ill”. Thank god for LSs. I think a period anywhere would ruin it.
Considering how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change that it brings, how astonishing, when the lights of health go down, the undiscovered countries that are then disclosed, what wastes and deserts of the soul a slight attack of influenza brings to view, what precipices and lawns sprinkled with bright flowers a little rise of temperature reveals, what ancient and obdurate oaks are uprooted in us by the act of sickness, how we go down into the pit of death and feel the water of annihilation close above our heads and wake thinking to find ourselves in the presence of the angels and harpers when we have a tooth out and come to the surface in the dentist’s arm-chair and confuse his “Rinse the Mouth —- rinse the mouth” with the greeting of the Deity stooping from the floor of Heaven to welcome us – when we think of this, as we are frequently forced to think of it, it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love and battle and jealousy among the prime themes of literature.”
Can I be any more Pompous
Just found a neat article about sentence elongation that seemed appropriate for this thread:
http://www.slate.com/id/2295413/
Post a Comment