There are any number of measures of aesthetics, but here's one to get you started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vers

There are any number of measures of aesthetics, but here's one to get you started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versification It's about poetry, but all of the devices of poetry, including meter, are useful in prose. This is one of those arguments that can't be won outright, but that doesn't mean some opinions aren't better (better reasoned, better informed) than others. FWIW, I love Yegge's essays, but they ain't literature. They're too careless and breezy on any number of vectors -- more like a better than usual newspaper feature article. You know, something about the local Pumpkin Festival or whatever.