8 Comments
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Ryan's avatar

You are right about it being Darwinian. Cicero said, "The rules follow from eloquence, not the other way around." Good rhetoric is what works, what fits the purpose.

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Henry Oliver's avatar

That’s a splendid Cicero quote thanks

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Clara Venegas's avatar

I completely agree with you. In fact, one of the things the best teacher I've ever had taught me is precisely to adapt my writing to the circumstances. To write in whatever way is best for the story in question and to take into account that I can't always apply what I've learned from writing it to the next thing I write.

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Henry Oliver's avatar

Exactly! It’s part of how writing stays fresh

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Gaye Ingram's avatar

"better writer than he" (not "better writer than him"). And please remove me from this list.

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Henry Oliver's avatar

Does it matter? If you want to unsubscribe you need to do that through your Substack account I think.

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Jimmy Nicholls's avatar

Seems to me a lot of your criticisms of Orwell are answered in the essay his rules came from. For example, he acknowledges you can follow his rules “and still write bad English”, and that they don't apply to literary writing.

Speaking as an editor, most of the pieces I've worked on were better after Orwell’s rules were applied. You can improve a lot of writing just be cutting the flab.

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Henry Oliver's avatar

The fact that his rules can work doesn’t mean they ought to be rules. Too many times when they are flat wrong. You are using them as I recommend--as a style guide for the right circumstances.

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