“One of the stranger beliefs in science fiction is a passionate belief in Beautiful Writing--lots and lots of extraspecial exciting words thrown no hurled no CASCADED upon the reader in a shimmering shower of precious verbal gleaming gleanings and a singing pillar of righteous fiery syntactic spinach. The only thing that was good in that sentence was the spinach, and the hell with it.”
That Style Thingie (1998 Essay)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
John Barnes 38
American science fiction writer 1957Related quotes
“"It's broccoli, dear."
"I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it."”
Caption for a cartoon by Carl Rose in The New Yorker (8 December 1928)
“Our youth education is based on three pillars: belief, science and work.”
https://www.kff.com/king-faisal-bin-abdulaziz/
“Wars are Spinach. Life in general is the tough part.”
Letter to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1547504/Hemingway-and-Dietrich-letters.html?service=print Marlene Dietrich (27 June 1950)
Context: Wars are Spinach. Life in general is the tough part. In war all you have to do is not worry and know how to read a map and co-ordinates.
Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 3, “Words Scientists Don’t Use: At Least Not the Way You Do” (pp. 51-52)
“If you have questions about this salad, give your server the spinach inquisition.”
"Menus: Spinach Salad with Pacific Fish Cakes", Stacey's at Waterford, 2008-01-14 http://www.eatatstaceys.com/staceys-waterford/menus-lunch.php,
Restaurant menus
Blue Like Jazz (2003, Nelson Books)
Source: Hainish Cycle, The Telling (2000), Ch. 4, §3 (pp. 90–91)
Context: One of the historians of Darranda said: To learn a belief without belief is to sing a song without the tune.
A yielding, an obedience, a willingness to accept these notes as the right notes, this pattern as the true pattern, is the essential gesture of performance, translation, and understanding. The gesture need not be permanent, a lasting posture of the mind or heart, yet it is not false. It is more than the suspension of disbelief needed to watch a play, yet less than the conversion. It is a position, a posture in the dance.