11.04.2023

In Praise of Long Sentences

The above title is the kind of title that can stop a writer in their tracks because, as the title suggests, where there is a sentence long enough and effective enough and potent enough to be praiseworthy, it will, on being read, deliver a deep satisfaction and, hopefully, the required tingles as it unspools in hops and skips and leaps to the reader’s grasping anticipation for a lulling dreamscape, or paralysing fright—just as a wire-walker’s deliberate—for-dramatic-purposes-only—jitters, shower the expectant sky-gazing crowd below with a chill for that thrilling resolution as overhead, the artist comes to the sturdy platform at the cable’s terminus, and—let’s not take this too far—warm appreciation for a safe landing.

But the greater praise is for the razor.

TA

Baroque, Purple, and Beautiful: In Praise of the Long, Complicated Sentence