xssve -> RE: Intelligence vs writing (1/10/2012 9:41:11 AM)
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ORIGINAL: Moonhead quote:
ORIGINAL: xssve quote:
ORIGINAL: Moonhead That's a good line of Hemmingway's (and parroting a still better line of Twain's), but it's still a fact that Hemmingway style underwriting has proved a far more pernicious influence on American literature than Faulkner style over writing in the long run. Hemmingway made a point of using exactly the right word rather than rambling around it with a phrase or two, which is the sort of minimalism that works. Besides, he was a man who took a lot of care and effort in his use of English, so a load of blather about Hemingway isn't really an excuse for somebody who can't spell, doesn't have a clue about grammar, and couldn't write a clear and communicative sentence if their life depended on it, is it? That isn't a style that's been pared of all fripperies and irrelevances, it's just ill mannered contempt for whoever you're trying to talk with, and there's no excuse for that. Conrad is, I believe, considered the best writer in the English language, Hemmingway is adolescent by comparison, at least in terms of content. Henry James is sometimes mentioned, but even I have difficulty following the Shakespearan complexities of his prose. I have been compared to Faulkner myself, not necessarily favorably. [&o] In short, there is a distinction between saying something and having something meaningful to say, and while there is certainly a threshold of articulation vs. confusion, intelligence covers both expression and comprehension - also raised is the issue of character, intelligence, per se, doesn't axiomatically correlate with educational level, the world is full of highly educated, insincere, self centered assholes. Not does character correlate with wealth, but that's another subject. Conrad? I thought he'd been out of the running since the '50s. Is Joyce out of favour now as well? I have no idea, I can barely tolerate the company of lit majors these days, and presumably it is they who decide such things. I have a low threshold for snark, a little is funny, but it wears thin quickly, and postmodern lingo is mostly party patter if you ask me. Plus, I have noticed that they seem to have the shortest attention spans, and the most likely to attempt to correct me for using too many big words (unless it's postmodern noise, "it's all been said, blah, blah"), I'm not a big fan of the whole style over substance ethic, that falls under the heading of "marketing".
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