On the eve of the U.S. election, even those of us up here in Canada are biting our nails. For a bit of diversion, here are some wonderful additions to my collection of expressive writing.
In “Trump’s Tower of Babble,” talking about “the accidental brilliance” of Donald Trump’s speaking style, Slate‘s words correspondent Katy Waldman had me at her opening:
“For some of us, Trump’s language is incendiary garbage.”
Here are some of the other bits I loved:
“He uses adjectives as cudgels. You and I view his word casserole as not just incoherent but representative of the evil at his heart.”
“Simple sentences and one-cent words may not win admiration from the Walter Paters of the world, but they do aid comprehension.”
“To listen to Trump fit language together is to swim in an eddy of confusion punctuated by sharp stabs of dread.”
“In his mouth…[the discourse markers used to sound authentic] hedge and redirect of their own volition, as if no one is driving the conversational car.”
“Perhaps his egotism also produces the incoherent word stroganoff so many linguists have already written about.”
Okay, back to biting our nails!