The Elegant Variation: WHY DON'T YOU MUG A NUN WHILE YOU'RE AT IT?

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August 31, 2006

WHY DON'T YOU MUG A NUN WHILE YOU'RE AT IT?

OK, we might have our problems with the n+1 gang but this is completely unacceptable. Someone out there deserves to be beaten senseless.

The editors of the literary journal n+1 held a fund-raiser Friday night and then woke up with a nasty hangover: Someone had walked off with the $3,000 they'd raised. "It was the nicest party we've ever had," one of the editors, Keith Gessen, said. "Then somehow things got a little hazy. And then it was gone."

This is beyond shitty. There's a special level of hell reserved for those of steal from literary nonprofits. Perhaps some TEV readers would consider popping over there and making a donation to make up for the lost funds. (None of this will have any bearing on our planned n+1 v. The Believer match-up, in case you're wondering. We just hate shit like this.)

Posted at 12:28 AM in Words Fail | Permalink

Comments

Too bad that those people behaved so inelegantly.

I find "n+1" a great title which reminds me of the induction principles, of decompositions, of the nature of integers. Sometimes words are just flat labels while formulas evoke an multidimensional world.
I know, it is (my) bias.

Posted by: May | August 31, 2006 at 12:59 PM

Unfortunate but why does the biz manager who apparently got into an argument with his girlfriend and had to leave get off so easy? He's the one that should have been minding the till, literally.

Posted by: iansmith | August 31, 2006 at 04:02 PM

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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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*Now in Paperback*

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

August 31, 2006

WHY DON'T YOU MUG A NUN WHILE YOU'RE AT IT?

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

August 31, 2006

WHY DON'T YOU MUG A NUN WHILE YOU'RE AT IT?

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism