A wholly accurate paraphrase of the section of Clive James' Cultural Amnesia on Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne was a powerful writer. Here's a quotation from him: [single sentence]. I took the second half for a book title. Sometimes Hemingway just made up his titles, but sometimes he used quotations too. Browne's sentences are interesting because [a quarter-page on Browne, including a two other single-sentence quotations and several other book titles]. I often thought [Brownian phrase] should be a book title as well. [Follows eight or nine pages on the titles of contemporary books and titling; the preceding has been about one page] In conclusion, Browne was a good writer.
Comments
on 2007-03-24 13:48:21.0, bitchphd commented:
Shhh, don't tell the undergraduates.
and, further, on 2007-03-24 20:41:22.0, ben wolfson commented:
I don't get it.
and, further, on 2007-03-25 1:00:02.0, bitchphd commented:
Don't tell them that a shitty non-argument can get published. Or they'll stop listening to us when we tell them not to write shitty non-arguments.
and, further, on 2007-03-25 8:58:42.0, ben wolfson commented:
Not everything is meant to be an argument, you know.
and, further, on 2007-03-25 13:50:45.0, bitchphd commented:
So you're saying that this Clive James thing doesn't suck?
and, further, on 2007-03-25 13:51:50.0, ben wolfson commented:
It sucks but that's not why.
and, further, on 2007-03-25 23:28:12.0, bitchphd commented:
That's not what bothers you. That doesn't mean that it isn't (one of) the reason(s) it sucks.
and, further, on 2007-03-25 23:37:07.0, ben wolfson commented:
It's not supposed to be mounting an argument, so its lack of a decent argument is an odd reason to convict it of suckitude.