Against the use of dictionaries and other extraneous materials

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

wouldn't your ideal author - like Rasselas? - not need a dictionary, because they'd already swotted (love that word) all the needful definitions and derivations and permutations and were always writing from that knowledge (which is kind of how I picture Thomas Pynchon)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: jd [mailto:wescac at gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2006 11:33 PM
> To: 'Billy Genocide'
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Against the use of dictionaries and other extraneous materials
> 
> I'm not sure I entirely understand why she wouldn't allow them a
> dictionary...  is it just because of the fact that if they need a
> dictionary it goes beyond the case the lawyer made?
> 
> And I would agree that a dictionary isn't bad, and that a thesaurus is
> pretty bad.  I think they can sometimes come in helpful if you have a
> general idea of the word you want, know a synonym, but can't think of
> that particular word to save your life (i.e. a brain fart).  But
> generally they are useless as far as I am concerned...  you miss the
> nuances of the language.
> 
>