Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
In this chapter I have tried to call your attention to many of the writerly habits that result in soggy prose: metadiscourse, signposting, hedging, apologizing, professional narcissism, clichés, mixed metaphors, metaconcepts, zombie nouns, and unnecessary passives. Writers who want to invigorate their prose could try to memorize that list of
... See moreSteven Pinker • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
Reality, better say, lost the quotes it wore like claws—in a world where independent and original minds must cling to things or pull things apart in order to ward off madness or death (which is the master madness).
Vladimir Nabokov • Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (Vintage International)
Fama
On source criticism and media literacy'; on judging others reputations for reliability and diligently protecting ones own. Who do you trust and why? For what kinds of information? On what basis?
Brandon Marcus • 1 card
Highfalutin.”
Brit Bennett • The Vanishing Half: A Novel
At my high school and all through my first year of Oberlin, I’d been taught to read for meaning and subtext and symbol. I was good at it. I read with a facile “I solved it!” seriousness. I didn’t know it but I was a product of the New School criticism that still ruled English departments at that time. Somehow along the way, I’d forgotten how to
... See moreClaire Dederer • Love and Trouble
Heart, You Bully, You Punk by Leah Hager Cohen and The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty by Sebastian Barry.