A surprise in the new Cormac McCarthy

[arglebargle]

David, did you know?

 

[Shelbow]

How curious 

[jacobsaunders]

“A guy named Burgess in Ann Arbor” is a strange sentence, since this individual isn’t attributed any function or characteristic in that text

[rudall]

Is that a photograph of a page in a book? It needed a copy editor/proofreader. 

[Dwight Brown]

Pretty cool!

DLB

[martin swan]

53 minutes ago, rudall said:

Is that a photograph of a page in a book? It needed a copy editor/proofreader. 

Cormac McCarthy needs a copy editor 

Maybe you could apply for the job?

[Michael Richwine]

O that I might be as bad a writer as McCarthy! Or as bad a maker as Burgess, for that matter!

[arglebargle]

1 hour ago, Michael Richwine said:

O that I might be as bad a writer as McCarthy! Or as bad a maker as Burgess, for that matter!

Indeed. 

[palousian]

It's times like this that I wish M'net had a "like" button.

[David Burgess]

That's quite a surprise, since I don't recall having ever sent him a free toaster.

[Bodacious Cowboy]

17 hours ago, rudall said:

Is that a photograph of a page in a book? It needed a copy editor/proofreader. 

Well thats kind of what makes McCarthy McCarthy aint it.

I find his writing unbearable. Guess I'm just too stoopid to appreciate it. Color me a fully paid up member of the confederacy of dunces.

Cool to see our world making an appearance in such highfalutin literaychewer, all the same...

 

[Ganymede Piggot]

Tell him if he's looking for somebody to play you in a movie, you have a lot of experience at it

[David Burgess]

19 hours ago, jacobsaunders said:

..a strange sentence, since this individual isn’t attributed any function or characteristic in that text.

Yes, but doesn't using me as someone who is without characteristics or function describe me perfectly? How could he have done it better?

[Dwight Brown]

5 hours ago, David Burgess said:

That's quite a surprise, since I don't recall having ever sent him a free toaster.

But everyone gets the toaster!

DLB

:-)

[jacobsaunders]

19 minutes ago, David Burgess said:

Yes, but doesn't using me as someone who is without characteristics or function describe me perfectly? How could he have done it better?

The whole sentence reads “A guy named Burgess in Ann Arbor” full stop (period in Ann Arbor). Any normal mortal reader can only ask him/herself “Burgess guy what?"

 

[Violadamore]

1 hour ago, Bodacious Cowboy said:

Well thats kind of what makes McCarthy McCarthy aint it.

I find his writing unbearable. Guess I'm just too stoopid to appreciate it. Color me a fully paid up member of the confederacy of dunces.

Cool to see our world making an appearance in such highfalutin literaychewer, all the same...

 

I'm the exact opposite.      I find his writing unbearable because, among my other character building mistakes in life, I've worked as a technical writer and editor.  In tech and science writing, unlike in "belles lettres", absolute clarity is required, and the reader's questions are supposed to be answered.  Some of the more artsy fiction writers make my fingers itch for a red pencil.  

[Ganymede Piggot]

You have to be a Navy Seal or an ambassador to know what Tom Clancy is talking about.  Now it's our turn.

[Violadamore]

1 hour ago, Bill Merkel said:

You have to be a Navy Seal or an ambassador to know what Tom Clancy is talking about. 

[Looks over the top of her aviator rims, admonishingly.]

Not necessarily...........there are other jobs that speak the language.  

 

 

 

[David Burgess]

1 hour ago, jacobsaunders said:

The whole sentence reads “A guy named Burgess in Ann Arbor” full stop (period in Ann Arbor). Any normal mortal reader can only ask him/herself “Burgess guy what?"

 

Haven't I already answered that?
Do you British-turned-Austrian folks place higher value on multi-volume descriptions of something, than on "economy of words"?

Some of the older "elite" English writing styles seemed to place a high value on using as many words as possible, to say as little as possible.

[arglebargle]

Well, I enjoyed it.

[Violadamore]

2 minutes ago, arglebargle said:

Well, I enjoyed it.

That's what counts, and by now you're aware that you never know where a MN thread will wander to.   

[HoGo]

1 hour ago, David Burgess said:

Some of the older "elite" English writing styles seemed to place a high value on using as many words as possible, to say as little as possible.

Ain't that style called politician speech?

[not telling]

Nah, it's womanese.  

[jacobsaunders]

1 hour ago, David Burgess said:

 

Some of the older "elite" English writing styles seemed to place a high value on using as many words as possible, to say as little as possible.

don't need any words to say nothing

[Rue]

LOL...I'm just glad Vda added some pictures...