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From: ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: re: flammable vs. inflammable and Strunk & White
Message-ID: <721@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-Feb-84 14:32:29 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.721
Posted: Wed Feb 29 14:32:29 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Mar-84 08:33:53 EST
References: <606@ihuxq.UUCP>, <951@ut-sally.UUCP> <1007@cwruecmp.UUCP>, <1004@ut-sally.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 31

--
>>> Following Strunk and White, practically everything Vladimir Nabokov,
>>> Thomas Wolfe, Tom Wolfe, or Gene Wolfe ever wrote is in poor style.
>>> I'd rather read them than pay attention to a pair of pedants pontificating.
>>> -- 
>>> John Quarterman, CS Dept., University of Texas, Austin, Texas
>>> jsq@ut-sally.ARPA, jsq@ut-sally.UUCP, {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!jsq

Sloppy thinking, John.  If you could write as well as they did (or do,
depending), you wouldn't have any need for Strunk & White.  Of course,
even following their suggestions to the letter will not make you a
good writer, just as ignoring them won't necessarily make you a bad
one.  Confused?  Well, just consider Richard Mitchell's analogy:
"Knowing the difference between 'who' and 'whom' is like knowing how
to finger scales; the one doesn't make you literate and the other
doesn't make you a musician."

If you do know good grammar and style, you can choose to ignore it,
just as Victor Borge can ignore his virtuoso piano technique, when
he so chooses, for comedic effect.   If you don't know good grammar
and style, you'd better be very talented.  Some are.  Most of us
are not.  We latter folks are S&W's intended audience.  If you
believe you write well enough to throw away S&W, prove it--your
speciousness belies it.
-- 
                    *** ***
JE MAINTIENDRAI   ***** *****
                 ****** ******    29 Feb 84 [10 Ventose An CXCII]
ken perlow       *****   *****
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