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From: chrisa@azure.UUCP (Chris Andersen)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Donaldson's Excessively Distended Verbosity
Message-ID: <321@azure.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Jul-85 23:41:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: azure.321
Posted: Mon Jul  1 23:41:16 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 04:55:21 EDT
References: <2418@topaz.ARPA>
Reply-To: chrisa@azure.UUCP (Chris Andersen)
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 30
Summary: 

>From: Jamie.Zawinski@CMU-CS-SPICE
>
>I think that this quote of a quote from Chalker's VENGANCE OF THE DANCING
>GODS says it all:
>
>    "When chronicling great adventures, the chronicler should take pains 
>     to use words that even the most educated of readers must look up. 
>     this may make your chronicle very slow, if not impossible to read, 
>     but it will be critically acclaimed throughout the land, for none 
>     will wish to admit that they didn't understand and relish every 
>     word.  Instead, they will use the comfort with such phraseology as
>     a limitus test for intelectual equality.  No one may ever really read 
>     you, but all will be forced to purchase a copy of the chronicle to 
>     convince others that they did, and your brilliance and intellect 
>     will be permanently unquestioned."
>
>		--The Romantic Saga Writer's Manual of Style, Marahbar
>

I don't wish to admit that I didn't understand and relish every word 
because I *did* in fact understand and relish every word (of the first 
trilogy, I ignore the second).  I am not an "intellectual" who measures
a book by how many verbose words the writer uses.  I measure it by how much
it affected me.  How much of it stuck with me after I read it.  How much I
learned about myself from the book.

I liked the first trilogy because I it was good (to me).  If you didn't, fine.
But don't start questioning where my tastes come from.

Chris Andersen