Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Are people always so quick to assign pretentiousness to practices that don't align with their own personal preferences? I guess since I've always considered writing an art form, I don't quite understand the resentment directed toward someone who chooses to display an "artistic" penchant in a work no one has to read if they don't want to. Is there a fear that your favorite author(s) might "catch" this affliction or something?
I understand not liking something. That's perfectly normal. I just don't get the immediate leap to pretentiousness (by some). *shrugs*
And even if there is pretentiousness involved, I don't think I can use that to take points away from something I enjoyed reading -- that was well written. I guess didn't know humbleness was such a sought-after character trait in writers/writing.
|
Fair point. The thing is that omitting quotation marks seems to serve no practical purpose, and is, at best, distracting, and at worst, potentially confusing. So maybe not pretension, but certainly an
affectation.
Someone pointed out that Cormac Mccarthy's style is very clear and straightforward & actually close to being the opposite of pretentious, and that's also true of the book I read as well, the Round House. Which was in fact a decent enough read, although for it to have won the national book award I thought was a bit of a stretch.