Evening star., 1935-03-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

press thought to so put them that
exactly the same ideas were conveyed
to others.
Hence arose a multitude of inter.
pretations of the thoughts, so that in
the end the ideas undoubtedly intend
ed to be conveyed were covered up
and lost to sight beneath multitude
of new words and new thoughts, until
at last no one could tell which were
original ideas and which the inter-
pretations Of others, so mixed up
were one with another. layer upon
layer, like these vast old mounds un-
der which are found relics of 13 civ
iliZations, one on top of the other.
The expression of thoughts is not
easy, as every one knows who has
tried it. Those who may have been
in the position of receiving the eX-
pressed ideas of others for considera-
ton realize better than most just how
difficult thought expression is to many.
No one who has not sat in this posi-
tion, in one way or another, can have
any real conception of the inability
of many human beings to express
clearly, succinctly and to the point the
ideas which struggle inside their
heads for egress to the light. Mostly
such persons labor under the delusion
that in many words lies safety. They
are In somewhat the position of the
tracked animal, which no doubt feels
that in many twistings and back
trackings rests ultimate ecsape.
n "
Something of the same idea must
aSsail the reader when he is con-
fronted with one of these monstrous
books Of many, many pages, contain
ing words by the hundreds of thou
sands. Might not the man have
condensed it bit? No doubt his
publisher asked him the same queS-
ton. And now a legend is being
forced about him, to the effect that
he simply would not cut, that no
publisher could make him, that if he
pruned out 10000 words, he imme-
diately wrote in 10000 more.
On the other hand no reader should
make the mistake of thinking that
brevity. except in certain situations, is
a virtue in itself. "Curtness" is an
other misplaced American confidence.
Many think that II they can be brief"
they have achieved something very
worth while, whereas too often such
brevity misses fire badly. The death
of Christ, we are assured grandilo-
quently, only took several hundred
words-how dare you take several
thousands? But there is no relation
between the two, surely. Thoughts
ought to have the words they require
The great point is that there is no
intrinsic merit in brevity or length,
in itself, but only in as near a perfect
conveyance of thought from one to
another as possible or feasible under
the circumstances. Anthony Trollope
wrote some SO novels, each one of
them two to three times as long as
the average 300-page novel of few
years back. One not in sympathy
with novel writing and reading might
cry out against a waste of words, as
he held one of these books in his
hand, and declare that the whole
thing might have been told better in
fourth of the length. Where he
would miss would be in thinking that
his effort to express his own ideas of
something he really knew little about
actually conveyed the same ideas to
others who might have read and long
enjoyed the novels of the Victorian
Brevity or length is not a thing in
itself to be desired or avoided. but
simply a mechanical problem of the
writing business. The individual
reader must never forget that what
strikes him as too brief. or too long,
may impress another astute reader as
quite right. Part Of reading is the
mood. 1t is as with cup of coffee.
one time it tastes good. and the next it
doesn't, and explanations as to the
cream or the sugar do not quite ex-
plain, after all. The drinker says the
coffee tastes good, or that it doesn't.
1t is the same coffee, though.