Sunday, June 03, 2007

Colloquial style

Jonathan Mayhew makes a point I have long wanted to make, but with such precision that I will just tip my hat to him without further comment:

"We think of a colloquial, direct style as easy to achieve, but if that were true then anybody could write as well as Eileen Myles. But this is obviously not the case. Not even Eileen Myles can write like this--all the time and at will. The directness of WCW and some modernist prose writers too is an achievement. It isn't even that easy to imitate."

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