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> Which I largely agree with… But my God, Mark! Fewer words. So in fact you disagree. More junior professor writing that you don't have to reach up to grasp.

• dredmorbius 12y ago
  This wasn't a case of needing to reach up, but to slog through. To give a case of an author I've discovered recently who manages just the opposite: William Ophuls. He writes on a difficult, complex, and diverse topic (political systems response to a world of limits), but does so with an economy of words, a superfluity of information, an elegance, and all while maintaining interest and engagement. I'm still mulling over what he's written at a month or two's remove, and want to re-enter it again. I picked up a great deal reading his works, Plato's Revenge and Immoderate Greatness. That is mastery of language. Mark's writing isn't.
  • mrxd 12y ago
    > This wasn't a case of needing to reach up, but to slog through. Is there a distinction? Once I read a book that was partly about the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The author included a short quotation from one of his works translated into English, which I struggled to fully grasp. The original French version had been included as a footnote, so I decided to give that a shot with my limited high school French. With the help of a dictionary and a lot of struggle, I was finally able to understand. But going back to the translation, I couldn't find anything wrong with it. It seemed like a perfectly good interpretation. I understood because I made something hard to understand even harder, not by making it easier. Increasing the difficulty forced me to slow down and focus. You're free to define mastery of language as writing which feels effortless to read. But in my experience, the brain is a muscle which grows by putting it under strain. It may be beautiful, but for me that kind of writing is a waste of time.