Wednesday, February 28, 2024

What Makes Words Matter? [100WW]

This should be one hundred words worth reading, not just writer's diversion. Words should both stir and evoke thought. We prefer stir over thought and call it escape, like a thriller. There is thrill in thought, too, and good writers draw it out. The best writers do this with native skill but surely it's also learned. Wendell Berry's essays thrill with excellence. A book of concepts conveyed by a master, like Polanyi's Personal Knowledge, brings thrill along the spectrum: precision, deep understanding, accessibility, meaning. A novel like Brothers Karamazov mixes thrill with thinking such that you get both or nothing.

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