The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
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The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists
... See moreSteven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
The guiding metaphor of classic style is seeing the world. The writer can see something that the reader has not yet noticed, and he orients the reader’s gaze so that she can see it for herself.
Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
A writer of classic prose must simulate two experiences: showing the reader something in the world, and engaging her in conversation. The nature of each experience shapes the way that classic prose is written. The metaphor of showing implies that there is something to see. The things in the world the writer is pointing to, then, are concrete:
... See moreSteven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
Multiply these daily frustrations by a few billion, and you begin to see that the curse of knowledge is a pervasive drag on the strivings of humanity, on a par with corruption, disease, and entropy.
Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
Fox interrupts her narration without warning to redirect our gaze to Phillips in her prime. A writer, like a cinematographer, manipulates the viewer’s perspective on an ongoing story, with the verbal equivalent of camera angles and quick cuts.
Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
Good writing finishes strong.
Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
Remembering that classic style is a pretense also makes sense of the seemingly outlandish requirement that a writer know the truth before putting it into words and not use the writing process to organize and clarify his thoughts. Of course no writer works that way, but that is irrelevant.
Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
The early bird gets the worm, for example, is plain. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese is classic.
Steven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
the reader of classic prose “may conclude that a text is masterful, classic, and completely wrong.”