# To the reading comprehension challenged Re: Scylla's thread
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 2, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419 "2005-04-02T17:30:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 6
### Author:  [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/101 "2005-04-04T16:02:01Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#):
>
> Professionals who taught courses in clean and precise writing for a living tried to train that out of me for four years. They did not succeed, unfortunately. At the same time, Scylla’s writing honestly reminds me of a lot of their “bad writing” examples given to show what not to do when writing.
What kind of writing though? While I certainly would slam Scylla if he turned in prose like that in a memo or business document, how he writes for himself is his own business. I am _not_ a published author, but I do know several. There is a rather significant and growing segment of the market completely dedicated to purple prose and the like. Like it or don’t, but:
1. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon, so get over it.
2. The people who like it? Not your inferiors, so get the fuck over that too.
I should note that while **SlyFrog** ’s quote is at the top of this post, none of the “get over it” stuff is aimed at **SlyFrog** specifically.
---
### Author:  [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/102 "2005-04-04T16:09:19Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#):
>
> What kind of writing though? While I certainly would slam Scylla if he turned in prose like that in a memo or business document, how he writes for himself is his own business. I am _not_ a published author, but I do know several. There is a rather significant and growing segment of the market completely dedicated to purple prose and the like. Like it or don’t, but:
>
> 1. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon, so get over it.
> 2. The people who like it? Not your inferiors, so get the fuck over that too.
>
> I should note that while **SlyFrog** ’s quote is at the top of this post, none of the “get over it” stuff is aimed at **SlyFrog** specifically.
1. The people who find prose funny as hell? Stop trying to justify our laughs with accusations of jealousy.
---
### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/103 "2005-04-04T16:11:41Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> _Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses_, Mark Twain
>
> [Mark Twain - Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences](http://mark-twain.classic-literature.co.uk/fenimore-coopers-literary-offences/index.asp)
>
> Cringe before the instruction of The Master, and be silent, worms!
Oh Yes. Oh yes. Oh yes. That should be required reading for anyone who proposes to comment on the writing style of another. Dare I suggest speaking style as well?
---
### Author:  [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/104 "2005-04-04T16:25:05Z")
Good lord. Now we’re comparing Scylla’s “Jogging By Angst on a Snowy Evening” post to James Fenimore Cooper?
Hoorah! I’d say we’ve officially gone from mere over-reaction right over the edge into complete ridiculousness.
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### Author:  [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/105 "2005-04-04T16:25:21Z")
> [@Debaser](#):
>
> **Primaflora**? You’ve got 2500 posts, and I haven’t even ever noticed you. That makes you jealous, and you lash out at him because of envy. You and many others with you are simply jealous of **Scylla** who doesn’t even bother to proofread his posts and yet still earns the admiration of so many on the SDMB. It’s obvious, and it’s pathetic.
So it’s not possible to think that his writing “style” is contrived and purple without being green with envy? That’s got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve read in ages.
Certainly there is a time and place to criticize, and perhaps the latest occurence wasn’t the most appropriate. But to say that it’s mere jealousy is ridiculous. If you and others feel in awe of such sophomoric writing that’s your business; but please don’t project your idiocy onto others.
---
### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/106 "2005-04-04T16:35:33Z")
> [@Hamadryad](#):
>
> Good lord. Now we’re comparing Scylla’s “Jogging By Angst on a Snowy Evening” post to James Fenimore Cooper?
>
> Hoorah! I’d say we’ve officially gone from mere over-reaction right over the edge into complete ridiculousness.
I took it as a referring to the \*criticisms \* of Scylla, not his writing. Sort of like saying, “If you think you know how to criticize, learn from the master.” Perhaps I was wrong.
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/107 "2005-04-04T16:47:21Z")
P.S.
Here’s another little gem from Twain, form \*A Double-Barrelled Detective Story. \* IIRC, he recounts how he was roundly criticized by literery types (you know, professors and such,) because the reference to “the oesophagus” was apparent nonsense, although they enjoyed the rest of the piece.
_“It was a crisp and spicy morning in early October. The lilacs and laburnums, lit with the glory-fires of autumn, hung burning and flashing in the upper air, a fairy bridge provided by kind Nature for the wingless wild things that have their homes in the tree-tops and would visit together; the larch and the pomegranate flung their purple and yellow flames in brilliant broad splashes along the slanting sweep of the woodland; the sensuous fragrance of innumerable deciduous flowers rose upon the swooning atmosphere; far in he empty sky a solitary oesophagus slept upon motionless wing; everywhere brooded stillness, serenity, and the peace of God.”_
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### Author:  [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/108 "2005-04-04T18:09:14Z")
I done wrote me a couple of books too.
Geez, people, who do you read stuff that so upsets you? Just keep moving along.
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### Author:  [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/109 "2005-04-04T18:23:29Z")
> [@kung fu lola](#):
>
> Like fuck it is.
>
> Anyone who puts their writing “out there” is fair game. “Style” is not something that is uncontrollable or unbidden in a writer. Writers can refine their style, mold it, and evolve. When you write for a teacher, for any class from middle-school English to a University 500 level Lit course, you will be graded on style on top of content. It’s pretty self-evident that style is just as important to the quality of someone’s writing as the substance. How many editions has _The Elements Of Style_ by Strunk and White, been through now? 50?
>
> Comparing style to an accent, which someone can’t necessarily control, is disingenuous at best and just stupid at worst.
Way to take what I said out of context. Of _course_ people are rightfully judged on their writing style. To say otherwise is silly. But when someone is obviously in a vulnerable and troubled place and is writing to vent, to nitpick his writing _style_ instead of responding to what he’s _saying_ is the equivalent of snickering at his accent.
Try to imagine that you wrote a long, heartfelt letter to someone for the sole purpose of trying to explain how you feel when you’ve been very, very hurt or are just going through very difficult times. Now imagine that letter got returned to you full of spelling and grammer corrections in red ink. Who would _do_ that?
Besides **primaflora** , of course, whom I would respond to after her condescending and arrogant response to me, but it appears as if she’s already gotten her ass handed to her, so I won’t bother.
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### Author:  [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/110 "2005-04-04T18:31:13Z")
Yeah, I hate purple prose. Why, look at this no talent hack!
> [@](#):
>
> Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
>
> – Introibo ad altare Dei.
>
> Halted, he peered down the dark winding stairs and called up coarsely:
>
> – Come up, Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!
>
> Solemnly he came forward and mounted the round gunrest. He faced about and blessed gravely thrice the tower, the surrounding country and the awaking mountains. Then, catching sight of Stephen Dedalus, he bent towards him and made rapid crosses in the air, gurgling in his throat and shaking his head. Stephen Dedalus, displeased and sleepy, leaned his arms on the top of the staircase and looked coldly at the shaking gurgling face that blessed him, equine in its length, and at the light untonsured hair, grained and hued like pale oak.
Let’s get with the pointless criticism people!
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### Author:  [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/111 "2005-04-04T18:39:54Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#):
>
> Let’s get with the pointless criticism people!
Well, dear Finn, as a published author, illustrator, public speaker, and all ‘round fantastical human being, my only reaction to such drek would be to disembowel myself on copies that have been printed and strewn across the floor. It is only through leaving my blood and entrails on the written pages that the author can know how grievously he has injured the English language.
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### Author:  [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/112 "2005-04-04T18:42:13Z")
Strangely enough, I am _not_ a published writer. Guess that makes me a bit of an oddity on the SDMB.
Deep Thought: Vibrating red markers. Is there a market for them?
Carry on.
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### Author:  [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/113 "2005-04-04T18:44:31Z")
**Waverly**! Finally, someone with a sense of perspective and proportion!
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### Author:  [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/114 "2005-04-04T18:44:54Z")
> [@Diane](#):
>
> 1. The people who find prose funny as hell? Stop trying to justify our laughs with accusations of jealousy.
Where in my post do you see any hint of an accusation of jealousy? I guess it’s due to my status as an unpublished unauthor, but I thought I was making two points\*:
1. It’s kind of silly to blast purple prose as sophmoric unprofessional crap when there are a number of people making a good living writing it (which would make them _gasp_ professional writers).
2. It’s elitist snobbery to claim that your style is better than his. You can argue that his purple prose is bad purple prose, but you shouldn’t claim objective superiority in a subjective field.
Not a hint of “you’re just jealous” anywhere in there.
- Others have already made the point about the jerkish nature of the commentary given the subject matter of the post, so I skipped that one.
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### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/115 "2005-04-04T18:45:11Z")
> [@Waverly](#):
>
> Well, dear Finn, as a published author, illustrator, public speaker, and all ‘round fantastical human being, my only reaction to such drek would be to disembowel myself on copies that have been printed and strewn across the floor. It is only through leaving my blood and entrails on the written pages that the author can know how grievously he has injured the English language.
U shure writ purty, tho yuse gots to manny bigger wurds fer me two innerstanding.
–Hamlet, only published once, on a minor legal issue, doodler, public talker only when intoxicated, and mostly misanthropic “human” being.
---
### Author:  [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/116 "2005-04-04T18:54:41Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#):
>
> Where in my post do you see any hint of an accusation of jealousy?
Actually, I was only adding to your list for the benefit of the others (not you) who where accusing people of being jealous.
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/117 "2005-04-04T18:59:58Z")
> [@Waverly](#):
>
> … to disembowel myself on copies that have been printed and strewn across the floor.
There was this guy, Yukio (published author) who did just that. Now I know why.
MG
Not a published author.
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### Author:  [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/118 "2005-04-04T19:11:29Z")
> [@Diane](#):
>
> Actually, I was only adding to your list for the benefit of the others (not you) who where accusing people of being jealous.
But where did I talk about jeal…
Oh.
:smack:
😉
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### Author:  [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/119 "2005-04-04T20:14:36Z")
I’m (alas!) not a published author, either, though my mother used to display my artwork on her fridge.
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### Author:  [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-reading-comprehension-challenged-re-scyllas-thread/297419/120 "2005-04-04T20:20:46Z")
My ‘Pride and Prejudice’ didn’t do too bad. _:: modest blush::_
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