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Well sure. I mean, Abe Lincoln could have shortened the Gettysburg Address to "Let's free the slaves and reunite the union", but that wouldn't have had the sa
by j_baker 15y ago
Well sure. I mean, Abe Lincoln could have shortened the Gettysburg Address to "Let's free the slaves and reunite the union", but that wouldn't have had the same impact as the speech he did give.
There's nothing wrong with presenting a difficult idea that has a more dramatic effect. Do you think Moby Dick or War and Peace are considered great due to their simple ways of communicating ideas?
- pekinb 15y ago"Do you think Moby Dick or War and Peace are considered great due to their simple ways of communicating ideas?" This is not an argument for being deliberately obtuse.
- scott_s 15y agoAs long as you don't lose accuracy, sure. I think many of these crossed that line. They remind me of the tendency for bloggers to make a link-bait headline that obviously sounds bad, then they spend their whole post redefining what those words mean so at the end, their title is a good thing.
- glenstein 15y agoApologies for the digression, but this subject matters to me. The Gettysburg Address is perhaps the greatest example of writing that's stunning without being difficult to interpret. For that matter of War & Peace is clear and generally free of embellishment. I agree with scott_s that the whole article is written more in the style of linkbait than a challenging poem.