Quote:
Originally Posted by j. d. worthington  Part of the problem, it seems to me after many such discussions with people (especially younger readers -- say, below 30) is that there's a huge trend to see even fiction writing as simply the conveying of information, in the sense of plot, rather than even being aware of the richness of the experience of reading, seeing (and feeling) the textures, sounds, colors, tones, nuances, and subtleties which add so much more to any piece of writing (or painting, or music, or sculpting, etc.) than just "telling a story plainly and simply". This latter trend in fantasy (as in most twentieth-century writing) seems to have been a combination of following the modernists' (often) leanness of prose (especially as influenced by Hemingway's "Kill your darlings") |
This is exactly right, jd - and, alas, is promulgated in our own
Critiques section, where at least half the comments and criticisms seem to be on the lines of "Cut out the descriptive bits...they slow down the story. Don't dump information on the reader. Don't use adjectives. Don't use adverbs...."
Far too often, what's left reads like a synopsis of a story that could have been much more. Try reading
Dune, or
Lord Valentine's Castle or
Gormenghast........