In a joyful and lucid manner, Fish demonstrates that the issue is not an oppositional “style versus content” or “style versus substance,” but that style IS substance: “The shaping power of language cannot be avoided. … We can only choose our style, not choose to abandon style, and it behooves us to know what the various styles in our repertoire are for and what they can do.”
"Ben Marcus writes that in the literary world a false dichotomy has emerged: successful writers who can make readers feel by making them care about their characters and writers who care more about language – the storytellers and the users of language and never the twain shall meet. But Marcus argues that language can also create strong feelings."
ReplyDeleteOf course!!!!, say the poets.