Quintilian on Style

1. grandeur, not excess
2. sublimity, not harshness
3. strength, not rashness
4. severity, not grimness
5. gravity, not dullness
6. joy, not abandon
7. pleasantness, not decadence
8. greatness, not pomposity

I like 1, 6 and 8. They make my sensibilities feel warm and fuzzy, like a campfire that is neither too close not too far. The rest are, well, they are unpleasant, harsh, rash, grim, dull and decadent. I feel pompous for saying that.

More like this

I was browsing through some old notes when I found this - I think I wrote it in sheer exasperation after yet another email from a production company demanding I work for nothing because, gee whiz, everyone wants to be in TV, right?
Intellectuals, I have had it with your crap. I have had it with your Laputan thinking and your Utopian fantasies. I have had it with the assumption that people who do not instantaneously agree with you are somehow mentally deficient.
Steve at Omnibrain has been discussing a deep-fried turkey and turducken event in the back channels, and that has led some of us to ponder the ramifications of deep-frying a turducken itself. In the spirit of that discussion, I wrote a really dumb poem.
I did not get shot at during my presentation. I was not heckled to the point of tears. Richard Carrier's talk did not bore me.