"You can't convince me otherwise" implies that one has no interest in engaging in a discussion. Why even post, then?
You're right. Withdrawn.
William Faulkner on Ernest Hemingway: “He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
Ernest Hemingway on William Faulkner: "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”
I'm not talking about "big words," I'm talking about "big ideas."
Someone once quoted a line where an older author wrote something like A parasitic sack dragging on the slight woman (paraphrased). That is purple prose and paints a different picture than A swollen belly burdened the petite woman. I get a clearer picture of the girl AND the author's intent.
All of this is attributed to intelligence...I find that to be premature. All of this can be explained by changes in taste or an increase in reader intelligence.
I already clarified my statement with
I didn't mean, not fully anyway, that readers are intellectually stunted. I'm more concerned about their lack of patience and attention span.
And I linked an article speaking particularly about attention span.
I think that most of these arguments derive from attributing my statement personally. Just to make a clarifying statement, I am a modern reader. I'm only 33, but that places me on the transitional border between the olden days and the new way of modern prose. I fully admit that reading some of the older stuff doesn't appeal to me because it can't hold my attention. I'm trying to recall a book that I remember vividly disliking, but can't.
Another point. The teachers forcing us to read classical books helped me love writing. I didn't like the stories so much, but the passion she (I attribute my enhanced love of literature to one teacher) had about her classical books (Wuthering Heights an example) made me want the same thing. Also, she encouraged me to enter a local writing contest, even when I dragged my feet because of teenage insecurities. Don't hate teachers, they open up realms of potential to the waiting mind.
As an aside, if flowery writing is purple prose, is modern writing grey prose?
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