Defining Bad Writing and Good

I don't know whether Shivanic's article is insightful or just cranky, but these three sentences struck me as true:

"If we don't understand bad writing, we can't understand good writing. Bad writing is characterized by obfuscation, showboating, narcissism, lack of a moral core, and style over substance. Good writing is exactly the opposite." -- Anis Shivanic, "The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers" (Huffington Post).

Comments

Cheryl King said…
I'm not surprised to read, that in yet another creative field, the suffocating power of politics, i.e. 'the clique' stifles creativity. IMHO, to be in the clique you have to sublimate whatever separates you from it. From my years of touring I have long thought that the clique scenes (both in comedy and theatre) in LA and NY are almost incestuous. For comedy there is this chasing the 'last great overnight sensation' and for theatre there is a fixation on upper-middle class white dysfunctionality.

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