… In Praise of the Long Sentence. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The quote from Pynchon reminds me of why I have always found Pynchon unreadable, but I don't get the author's argument that Kermode was wrong to call it a sentence. In the schools I went to a sentence was a complete thought with a subject and a predicate that began with a capital letter and ended with a period. There were simple sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences. There were also run-on sentences, but I don't think Pynchon's falls into that category, since his punctuation and conjunctions seem in place.
I think sentences should be like the porridge in Goldilocks — just right.
The quote from Pynchon reminds me of why I have always found Pynchon unreadable, but I don't get the author's argument that Kermode was wrong to call it a sentence. In the schools I went to a sentence was a complete thought with a subject and a predicate that began with a capital letter and ended with a period. There were simple sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences. There were also run-on sentences, but I don't think Pynchon's falls into that category, since his punctuation and conjunctions seem in place.
I think sentences should be like the porridge in Goldilocks — just right.
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