Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/06/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Recommending Strunk & White as a path towards excellent writing sounds awfully dreary to me. It's like suggesting a person study the Merck Manual as the main source of a physician's education. There's little motivating force or fun at all in either and, without that, why bother? Phong, I suggest anything written by Joseph Conrad. Although he began with English in his 20s, for me he is a greater master than most born into this language. Nabokov still amazes, especially when one learns he translated it all himself from the Russian originals. Jack Kerouac will certainly get you going in some funky ways too. Fairly reeks with style. And I'll confess to a weakness for T. E. Lawrence's "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom." No less than Winston Churchill declared it one of the greatest works in English. Grand stuff. When I feel uninspired, I turn to Shakespeare's "Hamlet," II.ii, 295-308. Breathtaking! There is no real right and wrong in language, only mere conventions that shift and somersault with the generations. When I first heard Rap music in 1982, I was struck by its profound immediacy. Similarly, there is much great writing in other contemporary poetry, if only one gives it a little bit of a chance. We should be governed by nostalgia for older styles and qualities of language no more than by nostalgia for cameras. While the M2 and M3 Leicas have some special attributes, they're no good if one seeks quick film loading or rewinding, accurate light metering or the convenient use of 28mm lenses. The wiser youngsters of today will choose the M7 and Outkast, not the IIIg and Steinbeck, I think. Emanuel Lowi Montreal ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca