Re: a thread about something else

boots wrote:

John Ashby <J.V.Ashby@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

boots wrote:

Vocabulary, grammar, spelling, clarity, and brevity: mastery of
these
basics is necessary but not sufficient. Beyond remain style and
essence.

Style amounts to a consistent approach to the presentation of ideas;
the flavor of words chosen, types of constructions used, the
direction
in which the reader is led to discover meaning. True style develops
over time and does not break down unexpectedly as an affected style
may, because it derives itself genuinely from the writer's
personality.

Where style is the writer's brush technique and color palette,
essence
is the writer's choice of subject matter. Essence lays before the
world not merely a personality, but an entire system of values and
beliefs. Essence needs a level of honest courage, or lacking that,
a naive lack of awareness.

When the writer has mastered style and essence in addition to the
basics, the potential for great writing may exist if the writer's
essential thought is applied to the human condition rather than the
weekly political topic or other transitory issues.

The most difficult and important part of the writing process is
discovering what needs to be said.


The quality that great writing has is in the way it melds style and
essence, in the way the subject matter informs word choice, in the way
presentation underpins and exposes the beliefs and value system, and
so on. We can still value and recognise great writing in that sense,
even if it is applied to something that has little or no resonance
with our current human condition. When it does so resonate, on the
other hand, it becomes great reading as well as great writing.

john

How can something be great writing if it isn't great reading?


I answered that question already, when I said "We can still value and
recognise great writing in that sense" where that sense is the melding
of style and essence. We can admire the technical greatness without the
writing neccesarily speaking to us, informing us of anything beyond how
well-written it is. In many cases that will be because what it writes
about is too far removed from our personal experience - perhaps it is
about 19th century politics or life in a different social system
(though even then, there are often enough points of contact for the
open-minded reader to take something from the experience).

Finnegans Wake is a case in point, though from a slightly different
angle. Many people consider it to be great writing, but a difficult or
impossible read. Yes, some people dismiss it as writing as well, but
find it hard when challenged to deny that it does accurately reflect
its subject matter in the style of its exposition.

john
.

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