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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!snorkelwacker!mit-eddie!rutgers!psuvax1!psuvm!pjb900
From: PJB900@PSUVM.BITNET (VM Weenie)
Newsgroups: alt.flame,alt.sex.bondage
Subject: Re: THE SACRIFICE (of the English Language)
Message-ID: <90015.133813PJB900@PSUVM.BITNET>
Date: 15 Jan 90 18:38:13 GMT
References: <408@danish.UUCP>
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 20

In article <408@danish.UUCP>, matso@danish.UUCP (Matt Cavanaugh) says:


>        If we boiled that paragraph, we'd get primordial soup.  Or
>perhaps, because of the "Fire" from that "Cigar," we'd get cliche
>flambee.  Manicheanism, like comedy, isn't pretty; while intelligent
>writers like Melville and Kafka could swing it, it quickly bogs down
>into junior-high absurdities in the hands of a dilettante like Mr.
>Bond.  As Strunk and White have long taught, one must write simply to
>write effectively, Mr. Bond.  No torture you describe is as awful as
>reading text that is as littered with pretension as is yours.   For my
>next example of bad writing, I quote the following paragraph.

Critics, you will notice, say the darndest things.  They don't seem to
understand the difference between intelligence and talent.  You, Mr. Cavanaugh
are mired in your own (notably muddled) linguistic positivism.  I suggest
you burn your beloved copy of Strunk & White.  Spend a little time with
Northrop Frye.  It could change your life.

-- Peter