Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: John Ames Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.folklore.computers,alt.unix.geeks Subject: Re: naughty Python Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2025 09:53:11 -0800 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 39 Message-ID: <20251229095311.00002029@gmail.com> References: <10i8usb$2oo2c$3@dont-email.me> <10icd30$2ck7$1@gal.iecc.com> <10idu04$7inn$1@dont-email.me> <10if4lo$jr1h$1@dont-email.me> <6decndo7ib2Df8z0nZ2dnZfqn_adnZ2d@giganews.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Injection-Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2025 17:53:16 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="c7f27a1e30c931379018ee5a8d799cd6"; logging-data="1152643"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19x9O0ERMVqaemeqrSdLrZjnLz9DQYSV7Y=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:OjXTzmihtRd0vxSRktW2brDTrkE= X-Newsreader: Claws Mail 4.3.0 (GTK 3.24.42; x86_64-w64-mingw32) Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:80063 alt.folklore.computers:232871 alt.unix.geeks:99 On Sun, 28 Dec 2025 21:06:09 -0500 c186282 wrote: > I do note that 'artful prose' largely ceased to exist once pen on > paper was abandoned. Larger cultural shift maybe, or maybe it was the > preferred writing method, one that took some of the 'art' out of > writing ? While I do think there's something (not sure how much, but something) to the idea that the author's relationship to their medium affects their state of mind and the resulting work (I find that I connect much more to drawing in traditional media than doing digital art with a tablet, even though the latter makes many things much easier,) writing styles have been shifting continuously for about as long as we've had writing; long before printing, let alone typewriters/word processors. The tendency toward elaborate, artful constructions and language play has been vying with the desire to prune unnecessary material and shoot for minimalist "elegance" (as Saint-Exup=E9ry defined it) for millennia. The Mannerist period was probably the most pronounced example of the former, but you see it in other places and times as well - the strange and sometimes almost riddle-like "kennings" in Norse and Old English poetry, f'rexample, but even back in the first century A.D. Longinus of "On the Sublime" discusses these tendencies and weighs their merits. And closer to our day, writers of the 19th century had a much heavier bent towards the fancy stuff than we do; elaborate language in prose is more disdained than not, these days. I have mixed feelings on that - better examples of the old style (Poe, for instance, Lovecraft in his better moments) can really absorb you in their dense, weird language. On the other hand, it can easily go awry and turn into a sesquipedalian slog (Lovecraft in his worse moments, a host of lesser authors whose names we've long since forgotten.) It's a tricky business; a minimalist style is harder to go wrong with, but it forgoes a lot of opporunities for beauty, and mere minimalism doesn't necessarily equal elegance. (Cross-posting to alt.unix.geeks as it's been suggested that this is a better venue for these kinds of OT discussions than c.o.l.m.)