The book holds some profound truths. I just read this "vigor" passage:
"To show what happens when strong writing is deprived of its vigor, George Orwell once took a passage from the Bible and drained it of its blood..."
He goes on to show how abstract nouns and verbs suck the life out of passages like Ecclesiastes 9:11:
"Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success of failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must inevitably be taken into account."
What does the King James passage say? This:
"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
"To show what happens when strong writing is deprived of its vigor, George Orwell once took a passage from the Bible and drained it of its blood..."
He goes on to show how abstract nouns and verbs suck the life out of passages like Ecclesiastes 9:11:
"Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success of failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must inevitably be taken into account."
What does the King James passage say? This:
"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
Wow. You are right, Mr. Huff. Good stuff!