People Don't Write That Way Anymore [Freeper-run magazine article]

The Tarpeian Rock ^ | February 2005 | Claudio R. Salvucci

[Antoninus]

Presented for your consideration is the lead article from the 2005 issue of a Freeper-run literary magazine, The Tarpeian Rock. Enjoy!



It's free, so you may request a gratis copy here.

[Antoninus]

ping

[elli1]

and that is all I am going to say. :-)

[Antoninus]

Well, that's either a rag on the author's writing style, or a potential solution to the problem. Or both. You'll have to clarify. :-)

[livius]

Nice essay, and an interesting website (Arx), too. Thanks for posting.

[Antoninus]

Thought you might find this interesting.

[Claud]

Thanks...and if anyone out there DOES write like that anymore, Freepmail me posthaste :)

[Antoninus]

literary ping.

[cyborg]

bttt

[Oberon]

Ping for later.

Oh, and hi, cy!

[Oberon]

Ping for later.

Oh, and hi, cy!

[cyborg]

Hellooo :-)

[GVnana]

Bump for E. B. White. (Wish I paid more attention to "the little book".)

[Publius Valerius]

I dunno. It's about what works for the author. Hemmingway's style certainly isn't classical in any manner--indeed, it's simple to the point of being juvenile, but it works. He's a titan. Vonnegut also comes to mind.

Hard to say, this "art" stuff.

[eyespysomething]

Pong

[Tax-chick]

Thanks. Some interesting points. It makes me think of some of the letters and diaries I've read of Civil War soldiers. Their spelling and punctuation, in those unstandardized times, were truly bizarre; however, if you read aloud, their composition is usually very clear and elegantly phrased, because they were used to listening to the Bible, some of the classics, and newspapers written by journalists with a classical education.

[NicknamedBob]

Truly good writing is not about people -- heroes and villains, victims and victimizers, strong men and weak -- but about the ideas that make them somewhat more than human.

Michael Sharra's "Killer Angels" is not exclusively about the Civil War, but about the influence of belief systems in giving superhuman strength to the weakness of human flesh, and such is the nature of the literature of ideas.

Humanity is an animal made most remarkable by its ability to communicate. It is language ability which elevates us, and it is the ability of language itself to rise above its origins by making it possible to describe ideas and concepts which have no clear analogues in the physical world. This is world which is accessed in this remarkable realm of letters.

[Betis70]

>>Michael Sharra's "Killer Angels" is not exclusively about the Civil War,

That's a great book. Might need to dig that out of my bookcase and re-read it.

[Tax-chick]

Interesting point, Bob. "Killer Angels" was very good. Jeff Shaara's books are not as good.