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Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History Of Strunk & White's The Elements Of Style (2009)

by Mark Garvey(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1416590927 (ISBN13: 9781416590927)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Touchstone

review 1: I'll tell you what I thought about "Stylized" in a moment, but before I do I need to tell you why I read it in the first place.I'm in the middle of slogging my way through Stephen Jay Gould's magnum opus, "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory". For twenty years I followed with delight Gould's essays and books as they were published. I even read some of his technical publications, despite knowing next to nothing about palaeontology or evolutionary theory. I learned a lot from reading Gould's many books and essays. I liked the way he wrote about science, I liked that he was equal parts scientist and historian, and I admired his curiosity and range.Then in 2002 he published "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory", a huge - 1500 pages - book, and died soon after. I bought the b... moreook, of course, but it rested on my library shelves unread until now. In the intervening years something has changed in me. I still like all the things I used to like about Gould's work, but now I see more clearly that he had an agenda. A few key themes come up again and again, and after all this time I've pretty much heard them all before. As I pay my final respects to the man by reading the book he intended would cap his career, I'm struck less by the content, which feels like an extended recap of everything that came before, than by the writing. The wordy, over-blown, redundant, arrogant, and occasionally beautiful writing.Gould was phenomenally articulate and intelligent, and he wrote in the Victorian style of long, flowing, elegant sentences that can bleed on to paragraph length. He didn't write, as so many academics do, in twisted and arcane sentences that defy understanding. Even so, I can't say he was a good writer. Good writing should not be like playing Clue. Not for me the long and elegant and perfectly logical argument that ineluctably reveals the hidden secret of the murder. Give me "the butler, in the library, with the candlestick".In other words, I want to throw Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" at Professor Gould's incorporeal presence, and let the book flutter open to Strunk's central credo: omit unnecessary words."The Structure of Evolutionary Theory" has been such hard going I've taken to pausing between chapters to read other books. (Some might see this as infidelity; I think of it as lemon sorbet between the rich courses of an impossibly long meal.) I had just finished Chapter 2 when I noticed "Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style" on the shelves. Maybe I bought it on a whim when it came out five year ago. Now I'm glad I didn't read it right away, because it was the perfect diversion at exactly the right moment."Stylized" is a wonderful book about writing, writers, and what it takes to write well. It doesn't matter whether you worship at the altar of Strunk & White's "Elements of Style" or think it the worst kind of prescriptive patriarchal rubbish: "Stylized" is enjoyable, informative, and even inspiring. It's the story of two men who loved writing, one a professor and the other a writer (who was at one point a student of the professor's).
review 2: A wonderful surprise left on my bedside table during a trip to my childhood home. This little book reminds me why I love the other "little book" (Elements of Style by Strunk and White), and how words so thrill me that a good book on grammar can make me laugh out loud. From Stylized: "Elements is a very good guide to writing the kind of prose I like to read: prose that is supple enough to convey complex ideas clearly; that shuns gratuitous decoration while welcoming insight and wit; that's as lean, sturdy, and fit for its purpose as a pump handle." Hear hear. Throughout the book are sprinkled excerpts from E.B. White's letters, which charmed and entertained me so much that I need to make a trip to B&N so I can read more. less

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