Quote:
Originally Posted by Kumabjorn
Quote:
William Faulkner on Ernest Hemingway
“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” -- Quoted in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature, edited by Richard Thomas Eldridge
I don't understand what the criticism is in the above statement. Why would an author consciously make a reader look up words in a dictionary?
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I can understand the idea that writing can expose the reader to new appreciation of language, but I don't think it's a necessary characteristic of great literature. It's good to that we have both Faulker and Twain, and their respective kin.