The ultimate triumph is for an author to become perfectly clear, like glass or air — forgotten by a reader until the story is finished. James Boswell is transparent; Samuel Johnson's life shines through. John McPhee vanishes; geology, oranges, and nuclear physics seem suddenly obvious. William Shakespeare disappears; a stage becomes the world, mere players turn into real people, and lines from a script are now familiar in our mouths as household words. Pellucidity....
Thursday, December 16, 1999 at 06:21:37 (EST) = 1999-12-16
(correlates: Comments on StrongCoffee, SeriouslyNow, Joan Benoit Samuelson on Pleasing Yourself, ...)