Comments on: The Compounds (and compound-complexes) of Style http://storytellersunplugged.com/blog/2009/11/10/the-compounds-and-compound-complexes-of-style/ Where Words and Imagination Meet Sun, 13 May 2012 01:21:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/blog/2009/11/10/the-compounds-and-compound-complexes-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-152 Thomas Sullivan Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:55:57 +0000 http://storytellersunplugged.com/?p=469#comment-152 When the post-Promethean barbarians pick our bones, they are going to use iPods for doorstops and crystal punch bowls for chamber pots. Yeah, that's a little how I feel about what the book you describe facilitates. Admittedly, style is what I read and write for -- and what a good many of my columns for four years have been about -- but missing the nuanced music of expression is the mark of a grunt level humanoid. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. But I wonder if readers who gather little more than plot summaries couldn't be just as satisfied reading shop manuals from Taiwan. For that matter, they should skip meals and just swallow vitamin pills... -- Sully When the post-Promethean barbarians pick our bones, they are going to use iPods for doorstops and crystal punch bowls for chamber pots. Yeah, that’s a little how I feel about what the book you describe facilitates. Admittedly, style is what I read and write for — and what a good many of my columns for four years have been about — but missing the nuanced music of expression is the mark of a grunt level humanoid. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. But I wonder if readers who gather little more than plot summaries couldn’t be just as satisfied reading shop manuals from Taiwan. For that matter, they should skip meals and just swallow vitamin pills…

– Sully

]]> By: David Niall Wilson http://storytellersunplugged.com/blog/2009/11/10/the-compounds-and-compound-complexes-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-151 David Niall Wilson Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:36:08 +0000 http://storytellersunplugged.com/?p=469#comment-151 It appears they are not only "remastered" but dumbed down to about an 8th grade reading level...that read more like the text of a Hardy Boys book - only (as you said) dead. Neither of those passages was at all difficult to read in its original state, and neither worth reading in the remastered...in a time when talented authors are struggling for slots on the bookshelf, the fact some publisher shelled out cash for this is horrifying... DNW It appears they are not only “remastered” but dumbed down to about an 8th grade reading level…that read more like the text of a Hardy Boys book – only (as you said) dead.

Neither of those passages was at all difficult to read in its original state, and neither worth reading in the remastered…in a time when talented authors are struggling for slots on the bookshelf, the fact some publisher shelled out cash for this is horrifying…

DNW

]]> By: Joe Iriarte http://storytellersunplugged.com/blog/2009/11/10/the-compounds-and-compound-complexes-of-style/comment-page-1/#comment-150 Joe Iriarte Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:36:14 +0000 http://storytellersunplugged.com/?p=469#comment-150 Oh, wow . . . that is pretty stark. I especially got a kick out the way he took an active sentence of Poe's and passivized [ ;-) ] it. So he not only stripped the style off, he also made it more boring. I'm more than a bit surprised something like this could find a publisher. Thanks for taking the time to find the specific passages in both works, so we could compare them. Oh, wow . . . that is pretty stark. I especially got a kick out the way he took an active sentence of Poe’s and passivized [ ;-) ] it. So he not only stripped the style off, he also made it more boring. I’m more than a bit surprised something like this could find a publisher.

Thanks for taking the time to find the specific passages in both works, so we could compare them.

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