ablelaz

Hi Write Stuff----As the old Indian chief said. “It’s a good thing all men don’t think alike, everyone would want my squaw.”

I don’t buy fiction to further my vocabulary, or spruce up my education. I’m more interested in being entertained, sweep me of my feet and carry me to another land. Let me melt into the pages of an easy read, were I can become the swashbuckler pirate, the clever private eye, or the fearless gunfighter.

So often when we encounter an author who goes out of his way to dazzle his reader with words, he has forgotten about the story.

Many opinions in this thread seem to think anything goes, abbreviations, foreign words, or even rarely used slang.

Well different strokes for different folks, but I think by-en-large most readers are smart enough to select texts for education, non-fiction for information and fiction or entertainment. Well that the way this old puppy see it.

Talk to you soon---ablelaz.

lin

SBy no means. Again, many people read books for exactly that reason...to be dazzled by words.

Some writers have large vocabularies and use them smoothly, literate readers like this.

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qwertyman

Erm...no.


'Often' and what happens if they don't express it better? Do you still use them?

Acronyms don't bother me, I usually figure out the intention of their inclusion.

I can be dazzled by the use of words but I am very rarely dazzled by the length or the obscurity of them.

Call me old-fashioned, abelaz speaks for me (in slightly larger font).

Cut the pompous crap, tell us the story. Intrigue me, make me miss my bus stop.

The Backward OX

So, querty, you're saying your vocabulary is complete?

querty, perhaps the problem is your lack of literacy?

The Backward OX

I think the word is "spin", old chap.

lin

Not in the books I've read about it. Mostly set in Victorian and Napoleanic times, if that makes a difference.

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qwertyman

Pompous...Moi? (splutter!)

WriteStuff, is going to educate me by using sophisticated words...
And 'often' the sophisticated word that he has chosen to educate me with express what he is trying to say... what happens the rest of the time?

I read novels to be entertained not educated - for that I read text books.

There is a special place on my wall that I throw books at that 'educate' me.
(Checks pulse and takes pill).

Put a point of view, show an opinion if you will, but bury it - it isn't 'the point of literature'. Good literature is story-telling with artistic merit.

But me, I'll settle for good story-telling. (Sigh! Takes another pill, reads label. Do not exceed dose or mix with alchohol...may cause drowsiness...oh shit...zzzzz)

ablelaz

Hi Lin----Quote; --- Again, many people read books for exactly that reason...to be dazzled by words.

Your statement is vague and perhaps that’s by intension. When you speak of books it covers a very wide range of literature. Texts which are produced to educate people in any number of topics; are generally written by experts in the field the text addresses. Surely the people you refer to as those that like to be dazzled by words know they can be dazzled cover to cover by a text on literature.

Quote; --- Some writers have large vocabularies and use them smoothly, literate readers like this.

Some writers don’t have large vocabularies, but they try to leave the impression they do and make a mess of it. I’m not sure what you mean by the term [literary readers] is this a grade the reader can reach, or just a veiled insult aimed at the rest, the vast majority of the worlds readers.

WriteStuff seems to think using large, more sophisticated words educates the reader.

Yes that is sometimes the point of literature, but most people of average intelligent buy a text when they feel the need for education.

I didn’t get the impression the qwerty was saying his vocabulary is complete. I rather got the feeling he was saying when I want to improve my vocabulary, I will buy a text and do it right.

No Old Chap, we are not talking about spin. When one uses the word spin they are talking about style, not word choice or literature.

Backward OX said qwerty, and I suppose myself a by association, are behaving like pompous twats. What in the world is a twat, my over educated friend? I have heard of a twit, but never a twat, maybe a twit is a female twat, the possibilities are endless. Perhaps it’s a sophisticated word, qwerty and I haven’t yet heard of.

Anyway my friend you are behaving like an OXEN`S ASS; oh I mean a Backward Ox.

Talk to you soon---ablelaz.

Candrah

Um I don't want to get involved in any argument because everyone's entitled to their opinion.

Just wanted to say "twat" - its a slang term meaning a woman of loose morals ie; easy, slut, slag, whore, prostitute... etc. Thats how it started out. Now, it means idiot, not very clever, doonbrain, numpty... etc. Not sophisticated at all.

Sorry to hijack your thread lin.

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Dragons are my first love: www.candragonart.com

I leave feedback as a reader - feel free to take anything I say with a bucketful of salt.

lin

Nothing vague about it. But I won't try to convince you based on the sentence below:

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The Backward OX

Probably.

Almost but not quite as far back as Victorian times, Sir Henry Newbolt became famous for the poem Vitaï Lampada. It refers to how a future soldier learns stoicism in cricket matches in the famous Close at Clifton College:

“There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night
Ten to make and the match to win
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play, and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat.
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote
"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red-
Red with the wreck of the square that broke
The gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed its banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks-
"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"

This is the word that year by year,
While in her place the school is set,
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind -
"Play up! Play up! And play the game!"”


The poem was both highly regarded and repeatedly satirised by those who experienced WW I

Unashamedly pinched from Wiki