Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/06/25

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Subject: [Leica] RE: declining quality of writing
From: lowiemanuel at yahoo.ca (Emanuel Lowi)
Date: Fri Jun 25 08:34:15 2004

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      

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