7 ms·

I love the way people communicated in the 20th century, and the writing is very much how it was spoken. There's so much candour and mature sentiment. I feel all

I love the way people communicated in the 20th century, and the writing is very much how it was spoken. There's so much candour and mature sentiment. I feel all that is lost today, there's less candour, less vulnerability and less elegance. I guess languages evolve over time and it is to be expected, but it does sadden me (not in a bitter way). I'd love to find further works like this. They're exceptionally delightful.

greenyoda 13y ago
"I'd love to find further works like this." The blog that this article is from, "Letters of Note", is full of interesting letters from interesting people.
- krmmalik 13y ago
  Ah right. Thank you! I think i'm going to learn better how to write like this. I've just had an epiphany.
eshvk 13y ago
I disagree that prose doesn't exist anymore as it once did. It is merely that there is not that much of a market for prose. America, for better or worse, consumes the kind of fiction that is sappy, feel-good. Ultimately, intellectually unsatisfying to me. However, there are books out there, soul-wrenching books that explore the human condition. The condition that cannot be defined in simple terms of good, bad. Where Eat, Pray, Love doesn't end happily.
- krmmalik 13y ago
  You do have a point. I just feel alot of us write what we think as opposed to what we really feel. There's a fear of being judged. It's guarded writing. I'm halfway through a book on writing at the moment, and the author states that good writing is what is written without fear of judgement or rather in ignorance of it. I think in today's times, that's really hard to do. What's written in personal diaries and journals, is very different to what's communicated in an email even if the words are intended for the same effect.
  - redler 13y ago
    It's difficult -- maybe impossible -- to write with no consideration for one's audience, present or eventual. The writer's equivalent of a Zen practitioner's pursuit of "mind like water". "The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it." -- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
    - krmmalik 13y ago
      That quote is totally on the money. I have a new blog post that I am writing today. I'm too scared to really say the truth of what I think and feel for fear of being judged. Shall I do it anyway? What say you?
- brudgers 13y ago
  Yes, most books are crap. Yet, America still has Cormac McCarthy.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
mbillie1 13y ago
This is probably not what you're looking for, but (as a relatively unrevealed piece of beautiful prose) I find this excellent: http://i.imgur.com/QHjoz.jpg http://i.imgur.com/QHjoz.jpg
- krmmalik 13y ago
  I love it. I must learn more about what prose is. I did not pay attention in school. I was not excited by prose then, but i am excited about it now.
kafkaesque 13y ago
I feel all that is lost today, there's less candour, less vulnerability and less elegance. As a literature major, I think you're misrepresenting the 20th century; more specifically, the '50s. The '50s gave birth to the Beat poets, Kerouac's On the Road, Allen Ginsberg (who wrote poetry that would be considered pretty vulgar even by today's standards, including highly detailed sex orgies), Burroughs' Naked Lunch, etc. Basically, the '50s (and other points in the 20th century), had a lot of literature which was less elegant and less vulnerable--just as experimental as today's works of arts, just as cynical and dishonest. EB White was a purist. That doesn't mean he was any better or worse. But he does have a particular style he is partial to. There is more candid, vulnerable, and elegant literature being written today, just as there was in the late 20th century (late 90s). If you tell me the themes you're interested in, I might be able to recommend some stuff.
- ender7 13y ago
  Moreover, while White's style of writing is simple and straightforward, it is not representative of how people talked then (or talk today). That's part of the magic -- his words are so carefully crafted that we mistake elegance for simplicity and structure for straightforwardness. There is none of the common unevenness of natural speech to trip up our reading ears; the words flow so easily into our minds that it feels like we're talking to ourselves. White was also the co-author of a famous prescriptive book on writing and grammar [1]. He knew what he was doing :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style
  - kafkaesque 13y ago
    Very true! But to be honest, I'm thankful most of my English professors did not care for The Elements of Style, never recommended it, and instead recommended other style guides which were better suited to me and our times. :) I loved Charlotte's Web, though. I first read it when I was 8, I believe, and it had quite an impact on me. Thematically, quite different, but Dylan Thomas had the same, I like to call it deceptive 'straightforwardness' and 'simplicity'. Plus, his sincerity was refreshing. He stripped away all the pretentiousness that many symbolists/surrealists can be interpreted as having. When I read him I don't sense that same frivolous nature some academics have, including some stuff by EB White.
pinchyfingers 13y ago
It wouldn't be fair to expect everyone to write like E.B. White, he is one of the very best.

greenyoda 13y ago

"I'd love to find further works like this." The blog that this article is from, "Letters of Note", is full of interesting letters from interesting people.

krmmalik 13y ago
Ah right. Thank you! I think i'm going to learn better how to write like this. I've just had an epiphany.

eshvk 13y ago

I disagree that prose doesn't exist anymore as it once did. It is merely that there is not that much of a market for prose. America, for better or worse, consumes the kind of fiction that is sappy, feel-good. Ultimately, intellectually unsatisfying to me. However, there are books out there, soul-wrenching books that explore the human condition. The condition that cannot be defined in simple terms of good, bad. Where Eat, Pray, Love doesn't end happily.

krmmalik 13y ago
You do have a point. I just feel alot of us write what we think as opposed to what we really feel. There's a fear of being judged. It's guarded writing. I'm halfway through a book on writing at the moment, and the author states that good writing is what is written without fear of judgement or rather in ignorance of it. I think in today's times, that's really hard to do. What's written in personal diaries and journals, is very different to what's communicated in an email even if the words are intended for the same effect.
- redler 13y ago
  It's difficult -- maybe impossible -- to write with no consideration for one's audience, present or eventual. The writer's equivalent of a Zen practitioner's pursuit of "mind like water". "The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it." -- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
  - krmmalik 13y ago
    That quote is totally on the money. I have a new blog post that I am writing today. I'm too scared to really say the truth of what I think and feel for fear of being judged. Shall I do it anyway? What say you?
brudgers 13y ago
Yes, most books are crap. Yet, America still has Cormac McCarthy.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

mbillie1 13y ago

This is probably not what you're looking for, but (as a relatively unrevealed piece of beautiful prose) I find this excellent: http://i.imgur.com/QHjoz.jpg http://i.imgur.com/QHjoz.jpg

krmmalik 13y ago
I love it. I must learn more about what prose is. I did not pay attention in school. I was not excited by prose then, but i am excited about it now.

kafkaesque 13y ago

I feel all that is lost today, there's less candour, less vulnerability and less elegance. As a literature major, I think you're misrepresenting the 20th century; more specifically, the '50s. The '50s gave birth to the Beat poets, Kerouac's On the Road, Allen Ginsberg (who wrote poetry that would be considered pretty vulgar even by today's standards, including highly detailed sex orgies), Burroughs' Naked Lunch, etc. Basically, the '50s (and other points in the 20th century), had a lot of literature which was less elegant and less vulnerable--just as experimental as today's works of arts, just as cynical and dishonest. EB White was a purist. That doesn't mean he was any better or worse. But he does have a particular style he is partial to. There is more candid, vulnerable, and elegant literature being written today, just as there was in the late 20th century (late 90s). If you tell me the themes you're interested in, I might be able to recommend some stuff.

ender7 13y ago
Moreover, while White's style of writing is simple and straightforward, it is not representative of how people talked then (or talk today). That's part of the magic -- his words are so carefully crafted that we mistake elegance for simplicity and structure for straightforwardness. There is none of the common unevenness of natural speech to trip up our reading ears; the words flow so easily into our minds that it feels like we're talking to ourselves. White was also the co-author of a famous prescriptive book on writing and grammar [1]. He knew what he was doing :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style
- kafkaesque 13y ago
  Very true! But to be honest, I'm thankful most of my English professors did not care for The Elements of Style, never recommended it, and instead recommended other style guides which were better suited to me and our times. :) I loved Charlotte's Web, though. I first read it when I was 8, I believe, and it had quite an impact on me. Thematically, quite different, but Dylan Thomas had the same, I like to call it deceptive 'straightforwardness' and 'simplicity'. Plus, his sincerity was refreshing. He stripped away all the pretentiousness that many symbolists/surrealists can be interpreted as having. When I read him I don't sense that same frivolous nature some academics have, including some stuff by EB White.

pinchyfingers 13y ago

It wouldn't be fair to expect everyone to write like E.B. White, he is one of the very best.