Elemental Coming Soon!!

[AgaresOaks]

""The princess, and the boy, whose name, Nym now knew, was Xander, though he had no idea whatsoever who the lad actually was." "

No one can write that bad and get published, the very concept is lau--

http://books.google.ca/books?id=JwhVRkbFhQcC&pg=PA269#v=onepage&q&f=false

... COUP DE GRACE THIS ABOMINATION. NOW. Before I... Superflous... semicolons.... Blarggsdgsdg#%)(!*. Ahem. I lost composure there for a minute. What I meant to say was "this is clearly a work of exceptionally poor quality and I am astounded it managed to get published."

Maybe. Still the quotes are not representative of what can be read at Amazon, so it's certainly not unbiased. If the quotes purported to be from a random open page were really random, the writer was unlucky, because none of the pages I browsed on Amazon were that horrible. I wouldn't trust that review. I still wouldn't buy the book either, though.

No. There's "bad" and there's "every single time I see a significant portion that isn't dialogue there's a mistake". Either that or godawful stylistic choices. I, too, thought the samples might not be representative. Then I scrolled up a bit. 255. 254. 241.

I mean, comma splices, I can sorta understand (by which I mean I can understand how someone can do them not how they could get published) But... superfluous semicolons. How? HOW DO YOU SCREW UP THAT BADLY?!

 

[Morkonan]

Erm, welcome to last week? Brad already retracted that comment, apologised for it several times over, and then went on to launch a flood of mea culpas covering just about every possible aspect of the game's development and launch.

I never said the man wasn't taking responsibility for his actions, did I? But, does that somehow excuse him for making them?

I'm a nice guy. I forgive people very easily. If I had bought the game, I'd even forgive him for paying too much attention to his own self-image. But, there is a mistake that has been made and unless it is not recognized by everyone then everyone can't learn from it, can they?

Elements of Style, that would be the book that was utterly debunked decades ago, and should not ever be seriously read by anybody?

Hardly. Though, I would assume your more of a fan of Chicago?

I should think it a good thing that he's never read it then. Seriously, not only do Strunk and White get a great many things factually wrong, but they also thoroughly and egregiously violate their own recommendations at every opportunity. If Random House has read that book, then it is only as an example of how to do things utterly wrong. There's a reason why it's known as "the book that ate America's brain".

It's a great book. Whether or not it "ate America's brain" is arguable. It's not the devil. It's a book derived from a reference pamphlet for a writing course. It makes quite a few valid points and is very helpful in an extremely easy to understand and friendly manner. The book doesn't do anything else except sit placidly wherever it was laid down.

Nobody should base everything they know of a subject by using only one source. I wasn't suggesting that. I only threw the reference in there to show that there are some fundamental problems with Brad's book that even a very basic text on the subject would have helped to correct, had anyone bothered to apply it.

 

[Morkonan]

No one can write that bad and get published, the very concept is lau... and I am astounded it managed to get published." ... No. There's "bad" and there's "every single time I see a significant portion that isn't dialogue there's a mistake". Either that or godawful stylistic choices. I, too, thought the samples might not be representative. Then I scrolled up a bit. 255. 254. 241....I mean, comma splices, I can sorta understand (by which I mean I can understand how someone can do them not how they could get published) But... superfluous semicolons. How? HOW DO YOU SCREW UP THAT BADLY?!

If you really want a jolt, find a synopsis of the WHOLE storyline. And, as you do, remember that a major publishing house chose to publish it..