In reading an article in The Times this morning concerning the 50th anniversary edition of The Elements of Style, I reflected on a blog post I wrote a little over a year ago in which I discussed the effect the so-called “little book” had on me as a writer. It was a small stroll down memory lane inspired, at the time, by a slight detour. I had read a blog post by Paul Krugman in which he danced a piroette on the wonders of George Orwell’s essay about clarity in writing, “Politics and the English Language,” and I ventured the opinion that not only might Orwell’s essay perhaps not have been “the best essay on writing ever written,” but was, at least in my case, one of the best sleep aids I had ever encountered. Some days later, I noticed on the dashboard for this blog that there was a link incoming to that post. It connected to some website devoted to Orwell, and the author of the link added one of the “rules” from The Elements of Style in which E.B. White enjoined the nascent writer to not “affect a breezy manner.” Apparently my lack of enthusiasm had struck a nerve, and someone who lacked the courage to identify himself had constructed what he thought was a witty rejoinder to my slander against his hero. That’s how things are done in the digital world.
Unfortunately for our Orwell-loving sniper, my piece, while playful in spots, was not written in a breezy manner, and he (or she; idiocy is not gender-specific) missed the point of a section that White referred to in the book as a selection of reminders. This point was also missed in a recent article published in The Chronicle of Higher Learning by a professor from the University of Edinburgh called Geoffery Pullum, although, in fairness, Professor Pullum has more reasonable, compelling, and useful ideas to put forth. Both seem (although I might be misinterpreting Professor Pullum) to be under the misapprehension that The Elements of Style is anything other than a collection of guidelines for the beginner and is not–especially after E.B. White got through with it–a polemic or manifesto. Of course, they are not alone. Too many thousands, including the folks who created the grammar wizard in Microsoft Word, have taken the Little Book too seriously. They treat it as if it were holy writ, not merely some quick ideas that put forth the notion–the same one as put forth by Orwell, by the way–that clarity in the writing of English prose is a virtue.
Because Professor Strunk followed his own advice concerning the making of definite assertions, the early sections of the book do read like an extension of the Ten Commandments, but this can be overcome. And the second section, the one dominated by White, is far less proscriptive, although, I guess, by the time that people get that far, they have been conditioned enough to jump when commanded that they unconsciously omit White’s advice to season one’s taste of his reminders with a pinch or two of salt. It is long past time for everyone to relax a little and to remember that The Elements of Style is not a sacred text. It began its life as a guidebook for college freshmen and not as a learned disquisition on the English language in all its complexity. It is a style guide, and a decent one, I think, and entertaining to boot.
Now, two more things before I go.
First, I want to make it clear that I am not anti-Orwell. 1984 and Animal Farm are two of the best novels I’ve ever read, extraordinary in every way. What I failed to make clear previously was that it was that one essay that put me to sleep. If it is truly as great as Professor Krugman had it, then the fault is mine.
Second, Professor Pullum’s essay should be read by anyone who is infatuated with The Elements of Style and his words heeded. I think he is right in just about everything he says except in his insistence on taking the book sooooo seriously. It also seems to me that some of his notions, such as that “[t]he students who know which words are needless don’t need the instruction,” are logically flawed and detract from his overall argument. (Not that he’s arguing with overalls. Whoops! There’s that breezy side of me rearing its ugly head again. For shame! For shame!) I think it would be great to see his essay published with the standard text as an afterword or something. Everyone would benefit from a bit of scoffing, for there is no animal duller than a sacred cow.
