A question about great writers?

Question

If the purpose of great writing is to be concise and direct, then why are authors such as Shakespeare and Cervantes, who are famous for long-winded and bloated speeches in their work, considered to be so great?

Edit: My opinion is not that great writing must be concise and direct. That's what English professors have always told me.

Answer 1

I don't think being concise and direct are characteristics of good literature. They may be good for fact writing, like articles or research papers....but fiction thrives on being able to paint virtual pictures in your mind.....so it usually requires quite a few similes, metaphors, etc. to convey the right image that the author is trying to describe to the reader.

Answer 2

"Edit: My opinion is not that great writing must be concise and direct. That's what English professors have always told me."

They were probably trying to tell you kindly that you are a) verbose or b) circumlocute, either of which is "bad" if you're writing a critical or research paper for an English professor.

But if you are trying to be a "great writer" (and not a great critic of other people's writing) the two most important things are this: 1. Details details details and 2. Show don't tell.

Great writing: "She was a large lady with bright blond hair and a barbed-wire tattooo around one of her biceps. My dad had told me about her. He'd said to make sure I was extra-polite." -- from Flush by Carl Hiassen (what I'm reading right now, sorry about the random quote)

If a bad writer had written this: "The woman scared me."

See the difference? Which story do you wanna read?

Answer 3

Sorry to take issue with your statement but both Bill the Bard and Pedro's creator are concise as human thought can get. There are NO bloated speeches in any of their works. --Instead, all great writers and many many not-so-great writers are highly concise but only because that is a PART of why they are great.

Even Bill Faulkner was concise in his own way, even with 40 or more word sentences. Yes, even he!

And the PURPOSE of great writing as with ANY writing is communication, not mere mechanical brevity or overtness. Some of the finest--in fact ALL--haiku are indirect and never direct and I consider many of them to be as fine as anything either Bill above wrote.

Communication on any number of planes and the effective expression of ideas, emotions and other categoreis like these is what makes for great writing--and only that.

Answer 4

Maybe these professors think this is great writing because that's how they want your papers to be. There are lots of opinions as to what "great writing" is - think about what makes money in the genres of romance versus the genre of literature. Danielle Steele is considered a great romance writer as is Dave Eggers a great biographer and Shakespeare a great playwright - it's all perspective. And if your professors tell you that great writing is concise and direct, that's probably how you should write their papers!

Answer 5

Not all writing is meant to concise and direct. It all depends on he audience and what it is your writing. For example, poetry can be one line or one million. Besides, all of the authors you mentioned had incredible depth to their writing. Even seemingly insignificant things added detail to the the work. Being concise means you just come out and say what you are trying to say. Shakespeare is art; he weaves the words into things like plot and meter to make the work far more reaching.

Answer 6

I have not read cervantes, but the philosophy is buddhist like in shakespeares witings and there are some aesthetic strengths like universal truths that make him a great writer also he created a significant amount of words for the english language so you can add innovative to those aesthetic strengths as well as unity and complexity

Answer 7

Great writing is something that captures you and pulls you in. I have read numerous books that are not considered great writing and I found to be fantastic.

Shakespeare and Cervantes, as well as many other classic writers, are great because of the poetry of their words and expressions. As for them being famous for "long-winded and bloated speeches," they are only that way if you do not understand them.

Answer 8

A great writer can capture the reader. The reader should feel the characters and the story. Shakespeare bored me as well. That is how a lot of writer's wrote at the time. I have to admit I get lost when reading Shakespeare...it's great for going to sleep though!

Answer 9

As for the criticism aimed at William Shakespeare, in his defense, his plays were NEVER meant to be READ silently or even in a classroom setting. They were and are meant to read aloud, with emotion and tonation. English is an oral based discipline. It began like any other tradition: orally. Story-tellers were the "librarians" of the nomadic cultures from which "civilization" was born. Shakespeare's plays are living, breathing creations of the human condition.
Cervantes was brilliant in his study of escapism from a harsh reality to that of a more honorable, fantasitical life for his characters. He developed his study of human nature through wonderful character development, and again, his play was meant to be read aloud.
Conciseness and directness are traits of good writing for newspapers, magazines, book reviews, and expository writing. Artist writing or fiction calls for a broader use of language.

Answer 10

english teachers are trying to teach you to write a business letter, or a speech, or a report, or any other kind of writing that is meant for practical every-day purposes. shakespeare, cervantes, dickens, and any number of other long-winded writers wrote art, meant to change lives, to reach everyone.
just as you can't paint the mona lisa paint-by-number-style and call it art, you can't just say what you mean and call it literature. it takes a lot of work and a lot of layers working together.
but as anyone who has ever sat through a valedictorian speech, or read 20 pages telling you about the benefits of a certain kind of life insurance can tell you, on a daily basis, when you're trying to get on with life, layers only make for inconvenience. short and to the point is very appreciated.