Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: aspiring writers, take note!

From: Al Guthrie ( allanguthrie@ukonline.co.uk)
Date: 09 Oct 2002


----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Burton Smith" < kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com> To: < rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 10:30 PM Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: aspiring writers, take note!

> Brian wrote:
>
> >Well reading Epstein's op-ed cost about five minutes I'll never get back.
He
> >should have let the tree cut down to print his piece be used for somebody
> >else's book.
>
> Kevin said:
>Touched a nerve, did he?

He uses a lot of words, Kevin. Most of which are unnecessary, or as Mr Epstein puts it, "not in any way remotely necessary." In fact, his article is an excellent demonstration of how not to write, and why he should heed his own advice. The balmy drama, if one acknowledges such, of his writing lies in his felicitous torture of every sentence - the scales of syntax broken under the weight of bloated pomposity, truth to tell.

And of course most people don't have a book in them.

Al

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