the Gumps
Scottie Bowman (bowman@mail.indigo.ie)
Thu, 22 Jan 1998 19:29:01 +0000
`...we are trying,' writes Mr Salvaggio, `to attain a
conversational tone where punctuation, to us, is not
as important as the message. In a simple word: Duh...'
And Jim suggests we should aim at the undemanding
cameraderie of `a bar table' where only the meanderings
not be tolerated are those of a drunken Englishman.
Do I understand these to be the expressions of a now
fashionably `dumbed-down' America ? Then, for those
of us who for so long admired & envied the style, the irony,
the vigour of a Hemingway, a Thurber, a Twain ....(the list
is endless), it's a sad day indeed.
For people who purport to love reading & writing, is it
really such hard work to be lucid ? I suspect the distinction
lies between those whose priority is communication &
the others for whom self-expression is a more urgent need.
Scottie B.