Have you ever read something that was simply too clever? I mean, were you ever immersed in a popular and well-reviewed novel when, out of nowhere, one particular phrase caught your eye simply because of its extreme wit or elegant construction?<\/p>\n
For me, this is not necessarily a good thing. Finding my attention drawn too much to an individual phrase or sentence can yank me clear out of an otherwise good read.<\/p>\n
At such moments, I tend to feel that greater cleverness in writing is not always better. I like it better when the writing is good in that more difficult but less showy way: When each part subsumes itself to the whole, thereby supporting an experience of maximum immersion.<\/p>\n
It’s an easy pit to fall into. After all, who doesn’t love a well-turned phrase?<\/p>\n
Still, as Arthur Quiller-Couch once sensibly advised: “Murder your darlings.”1<\/sup><\/p>\n Alas, I somehow managed to violate that rule in the very title of this post. So I guess it’s time to quit this hit lit wit bit pit nit fit.2<\/sup><\/p>\n Have you ever read something that was simply too clever? I mean, were you ever immersed in a popular and well-reviewed novel when, out of nowhere, one particular phrase caught your eye simply because of its extreme wit or elegant construction? For me, this is not necessarily a good thing. Finding my attention drawn too … Continue reading “Hit lit wit bit pit nit fit”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20080"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20080"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20084,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20080\/revisions\/20084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1. Quiller-Couch, A., On the Art of Writing<\/i>, University of Cambridge, 1916.
\n2. Op. cit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"