CHAPTER X.
THE EPIGRAMMATIC STYLE:
Stephen Crane.
A peculiarly modern style is that in which very short sentences are used
for pungent effect. If to this characteristic of short sentences we add
a slightly unusual though perfectly obvious use of common words, we have
what has been called the "epigrammatic style," though it does not
necessarily have any epigrams in it. It is the modern newspaper and
advertisement writer's method of emphasis; and if it could be used in
moderation, or on occasion, it would be extremely effective. But to use
it at all times and for all subjects is a vice distinctly to be avoided.
Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage" is written almost wholly in
this style. If we read three or four chapters of this story we may
see how tiring it is for the mind to be constantly jerked along.
At the same time, in a brief advertising booklet probably no other style
that is sufficiently simple and direct would be as likely to attract
immediate attention and hold it for the short time usually required to
read an advertisement.
Crane's style has a literary turn and quality which will not be found
in the epigrammatic advertisement, chiefly because Crane is descriptive,
while the advertiser is merely argumentative.
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