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A review by almartin
Quack This Way by David Foster Wallace
4.0
very enjoyable free-wheeling conversation with more than a touch of sadness, knowing what events would soon come to pass.
not buying DFW'S defense of economy of language as presented here, and I wish Garner had pushed him on it in the conversation. As presented here good usage & clarity of speech are virtues because they don't make the listener do extra cognitive work, which is very shaky ground for such a prescriptive stance.
the argument I wish/hoped he would make is that written language encodes thought - you are writing to infinite future audiences! - and you should be aware of what your language is doing. somewhere in one of his books (maybe in the authority and usage essay?) he reports that his manuscripts to editors have the note "all departures from standard usage are intentional". the intentional is what's key to me - you follow rules of usage because NOT following them is across device that should be deployed for specific effect, not out of ignorance.
not buying DFW'S defense of economy of language as presented here, and I wish Garner had pushed him on it in the conversation. As presented here good usage & clarity of speech are virtues because they don't make the listener do extra cognitive work, which is very shaky ground for such a prescriptive stance.
the argument I wish/hoped he would make is that written language encodes thought - you are writing to infinite future audiences! - and you should be aware of what your language is doing. somewhere in one of his books (maybe in the authority and usage essay?) he reports that his manuscripts to editors have the note "all departures from standard usage are intentional". the intentional is what's key to me - you follow rules of usage because NOT following them is across device that should be deployed for specific effect, not out of ignorance.