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From: JAFFE@RUTGERS.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Donaldson's Excessively Distended Verbosity
Message-ID: <2517@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 8-Jul-85 16:28:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.2517
Posted: Mon Jul  8 16:28:40 1985
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: azure!chrisa (Chris Andersen)

>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