elegant variation
Writers use the word "elegant" in two ways. You can say that someone's writing is elegant, and, candlelight and soft jazz notwithstanding, what you're saying is that the writing is lean and economical, but not in a severe way. Computer programmers refer to good code as elegant for the same reason. Every gesture seems perfect, nothing is wasted, and it all appears perfectly natural, though we all know that much work went into it.
The other use is precisely the opposite. It's used sarcastically, especially in the phrase "elegant variation," which refers to a habit bad writers have of avoiding repetition by using a thesaurus. So, the phrase "a bird that uses the nest of another bird" becomes "a bird that utilizes the habitation of another feathered songster." Repetition isn't bad. Good preachers and politicians know how to use epistrophy and anaphora, because they're the last remaining people who study the art of rhetoric, which in a better America would be a subject in school.
In journalism, elegant variation becomes choppy and opaque. Actually, it was a sentence by filmmaker Kevin Smith that got me started on all this. In an article for GQ, he says, "Man, why can't I make a movie that'll garner half the regard that flick will no doubt reap?"
That's why, Kevin. That's why.
The other use is precisely the opposite. It's used sarcastically, especially in the phrase "elegant variation," which refers to a habit bad writers have of avoiding repetition by using a thesaurus. So, the phrase "a bird that uses the nest of another bird" becomes "a bird that utilizes the habitation of another feathered songster." Repetition isn't bad. Good preachers and politicians know how to use epistrophy and anaphora, because they're the last remaining people who study the art of rhetoric, which in a better America would be a subject in school.
In journalism, elegant variation becomes choppy and opaque. Actually, it was a sentence by filmmaker Kevin Smith that got me started on all this. In an article for GQ, he says, "Man, why can't I make a movie that'll garner half the regard that flick will no doubt reap?"
That's why, Kevin. That's why.
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