Sentences

Sentences

Jul 10, 2022 at 4:32pm
From: daninidaho (19)

To: Lone Cypress Workshop (30)



Review of The Colloquial Essay Discussion Page (#2245828)
daninidaho has reviewed "The Colloquial Essay Discussion Page"

(LCW) I believe that this is in response to The Interminable Sentence (#2249457)

Well, here goes.


Sentence length can be a touchy subject- at least for those still in the mood to quibble about such things. In a few words, Hemingway would say to keep it simple. Henry James would advocate saying things until one is understood, and in many more than a few words, the trouble being that the more old Henry speaks, the harder he is to understand. (Some say that Henry James cared little for whether or not readers understood him- that he'd go on as long as he cared to, and if his verbal cart hit a big bump, passengers who ended up in the ditch would just have to try and get back on board.)


It would be interesting to read a roundtable discussion between the likes of Henry James, Shirley Jackson, Raymond Carver, Montaigne, and others to see what they have to say about word economy, brevity, verbosity, and comprehension. But I digress. For the moment, I want to focus on the issue of sentence length as it related to postings here on WDC.


I too have been "advised" to cut down on sentence or article length- to which I would like to say "That's too damned bad"- but for purposes of civility have instead said little or nothing aside from acknowledging that the piece in question is a work-in-progress, so the length will probably change as I finish editing it. While that's a cowardly response, it does contain some truth and gets me off the hook- for now.



The trouble is that a request to trim off verbose limbs can be tough to take seriously. Unless I understand the reader's request (or intent), I don't intend to act on said request. Maybe the reader is an accomplished writer and should be taken seriously. (Of course, a decent reviewer will offer suggestions for improvement.) I could see taking their advice to heart. But if a reviewer says a piece is too long and leaves it at that, I begin to suspect that they're only in it for the GPs. The only way I'll know for sure is if I question the reviewer further.



As for WDC, I've already made up my mind: I'm going to write until my point is made. Site format restraints aside, if sentences are too long, maybe that's a test a good reviewer has to pass. If they make it to the end of a piece, it shows that I didn't bore them to death, or they have a decent attention span or both. It's not that I'm a particularly good writer, but I do crank out the long section from time to time. (The risk I run is being tempted to get verbose and stay there- a road that can lead to pomposity, and the overuse of words like "pomposity.")



I believe there's a place for short statements and long ones; to me, the key is whether or not they make sense. And if a reader at WDC would rather do hit-and-run reviews, more power to them- but they risk never being taken seriously or reviewed much, if they keep it up.