https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...the-best-sentence-in-atlantic-history/384741/ Just how dumbed down are we today? This is one perspective. I never saw and believed such strong criticism of Mark Twain.
Yeah, kinda...maybe. Sam Clements spent a lot of time setting type, editing, rolling ink and publishing so maybe he had some insight as to the amount of work it takes to print someone’s 200 word sentence. Dunno. I just envision myself trying to retype that sentence and OMG I’m doubly sure that I would automatically be tempted to place periods where there are commas and paragraphs where a sentence ends and a new thought starts and get sued. I mean, about 4 years ago and on this very forum, I was asked to shorten my sentences and reduce the number of $4.50 words and I do not consider anyone here even close to being illiterate. Note: I wrote $4.50 because folks here get the senior’s discount from the normal $10.00 price.
@Bobby Cole I wonder why the mere length of a sentence would make it good style or is there more to it? In other languages long sentences aren't considered good style.
It might be a sort of “poetic license” or something along the line of breaking the rules. Call it something akin to a social protest toward status quo writing or whatever but say what we will, it does draw extra attention to the authors. On the positive side, if anything else the long sentence is thought provoking but on the negative side, it is very hard to read in that there aren’t enough rest periods in order to consider what has been previously written.
Uh, so what exactly was he trying to say? I got lost between 'watches in pockets' and 'locomotive intoxication'.
Oh dang. I thought this thread was going to be about OUR "best sentence ever." I was thinking "Supper's ready" or "You won the lottery" are contenders.
I once tried to read a Henry James book to broaden my literary knowledge. Gotta keep up appearances, you know? The first page had two sentences. The first sentence had (if I remember correctly) thirty two segments. It took up over half the page. I put it down. If there is one thing I can't stand, it's run on sentences. I'll just have to remain in my happy literary ignorance.
. Reread.the thing. It hangs together in an excellent way. Periods are not the only way to divide streams of meaning - commas do that too. Admittedly, it's dauntingly long, but the incomprehensibility ( for most ) comes from the references to things we never studied but Holmes did. That's not his fault but ours for not having a broader education. I remember that my father, coming from a very small, poor Virginia town and graduating in 1919, was well-versed in Latin from only a high school education.What did I get? Useless French which I forgot immediately.
The 'watches in pockets' reference was about things happening without effort as the watch wound itself. like the 'locomotive intoxication' that put him into a restful state without effort in the absence of outside distraction like his chatty friend. - "some dear detestable friend, cordial, intelligent, social, radiant," Notice the 'detestable'.prefacing .the otherwise positive description. That expressed Holme's very mixed emotions about his friend. Today we' don't quite understand such sarcastic irony..