(no subject)
I have a question.
What is good writing?
Or more specifically, how do you define good writing?
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I define "good writing" the same way that Justice Potter Stewart defined pornography: "I know it when I see it."
That is just not helpful at all.
I know there are certain guidelines that keep writing from being bad. You know, constructing sentences so they are clear, avoiding unnecessary words, avoiding redundancy (i.e., "She felt her fear palpably."), staying away from prose that screams you are trying way too hard, making sure only to use words whose meanings you know.
But that is pretty much Freshman Comp 101, and all it does is increase your likelihood that your point will be understood. I am trying to figure out what elevates writing beyond mere utilitarianism and into the realm of art. I am inclined to think that, like all art, the answer to this is subjective. (After all, how on earth to explain how one person can think "Atlas Shrugged" contains good writing, while another can think Virginia Woolf is a terrible writer?) But at the same time I am pretty sure there are standards by which art can be judged. Otherwise the whole art world would cease to exist as we know it.
Unfortunately, all this does is bring me back to where I started, which is that I know good writing when I see it.
Thoughts?
What is good writing?
Or more specifically, how do you define good writing?
---
I define "good writing" the same way that Justice Potter Stewart defined pornography: "I know it when I see it."
That is just not helpful at all.
I know there are certain guidelines that keep writing from being bad. You know, constructing sentences so they are clear, avoiding unnecessary words, avoiding redundancy (i.e., "She felt her fear palpably."), staying away from prose that screams you are trying way too hard, making sure only to use words whose meanings you know.
But that is pretty much Freshman Comp 101, and all it does is increase your likelihood that your point will be understood. I am trying to figure out what elevates writing beyond mere utilitarianism and into the realm of art. I am inclined to think that, like all art, the answer to this is subjective. (After all, how on earth to explain how one person can think "Atlas Shrugged" contains good writing, while another can think Virginia Woolf is a terrible writer?) But at the same time I am pretty sure there are standards by which art can be judged. Otherwise the whole art world would cease to exist as we know it.
Unfortunately, all this does is bring me back to where I started, which is that I know good writing when I see it.
Thoughts?