One joy of reading is finding a new writer through the lens of another. That's how I discovered the work of
Bryan A. Garner, especially
A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, while reading a collection of essays by
David Foster Wallace, called "
Consider the Lobster."
One chapter in the Wallace book is titled "Authority and American Usage." In typical DFW fashion, it poses as a review of Garner's dictionary, but mutates into a hydra-text of contemporary language and culture. I'll be analyzing Wallace's words and ideas in future posts, especially as they help me figure out what good writing means in the age of the Internet. For now, I'll settle for this quote from Garner:
The reality I care about most is that some people still want to use the language well. They want to write effectively; they want to speak effectively. They want their language to be graceful at times and powerful at times. They want to understand how to use words well, how to manipulate sentences, and how to move about in the language without seeming to flail. They want good grammar, but they want more: they want rhetoric in the traditional sense. hat is, they want to use the language deftly so that it's fit for their purposes.
Here is the greatest compliment I can offer to Garner's paragraph: I wish I had written it. And I wish I had written it for the introduction to "Writing Tools." It marks the perfect distinction between rules and tools. It helps me understand that my interests in the technical aspects of language extend beyond simple correctness. I want to use these tools for effect, to help the reader learn, laugh, cringe or turn the page.
