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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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« RUMINATOR REPRIEVE | Main | JANET FRAME ROUNDUP »

January 29, 2004

I AM TMFTML

Fine. It's me. You found me. You happy? I am TMFTML. Now go try to do something productive, please. We mean it.

Posted by TEV at 10:28 AM |

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You are The Major Fall My Tranny Love?

I refer you to your head, my darling. (Goddamnit, Mark -- the one on your neck!)

Posted by: Old Hag | January 29, 2004 at 08:15 PM

$&#*!*(%$#(

People visiting all day, no one says a word.

Merci. Although it actually sounds kinda fun ...

Posted by: TEV | January 29, 2004 at 09:58 PM

That's because I AM THE COPYEDITOR!!!!!! You, my friend, will have to be the tranny -- sorry.

Posted by: Old Hag | January 30, 2004 at 10:03 AM

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