Keep it in (Take it Out)

[Timothy C. May]

jeremias at sover.net wrote:
> 
>         A often cited literary maxim; "Less is more" and I think it was
> Hemingway who said that some of the best stuff he ever wrote never made it
> into his books due to his particular desire to pare away unnecessary prose,
> with TRP however the opposite appears to be true in that more is better. Or
> does it? (Appear). I don't know, but I'm interested in the concept.

I've heard this characterized as "put-it-in-ers" vs.
"take-it-out-ers."

Hemingway was a sparse writer, a "take-it-out-er." Simple sentence
structures. 

Pynchon is the canonical "put-it-in-er." Compound sentences,
ellipses, parenthetical digressions, explanations, little anecdotes,
and jokes.

Think of what he could be doing with a modern word processor?

--Tim May



-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of
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Corralitos, CA         |  --Tim May's statement before the 1995 Hearings
                       |    of the House Un-American Activities Committee
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