David Blackburn

The art of fiction: Evelyn Waugh

Here is a short clip of Evelyn Waugh lambasting the “gibberish” written by modernist writers, a satirical staple of his. Waugh saw no reason to vulgarise traditional prose because it’s understood and spoken by the common man. Christopher Hitchens makes a similar point in this Vanity Fair column about the importance of writing with a spoken voice.

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