“Slowing down, for a contemporary reader, is a counter-cultural act.”
“Sentence means literally a way of thinking (Latin: sentential) comes from the Latin sentire, to feel”
“The non-skimmable sentence with an undertow that carries us backward to reconsider almost as strongly as it moves us forward to learn more is a sentence which insists that, to borrow a line from Roethke, we ‘take our waking slow.”
“And so the passage prevents us from indulging our vulgar appetite for action, information, and explanation – the fast food of fiction.”
“A story is an invitation and a challenge and a choice. If you consent to its terms, you will have your reward, but only if you take it on in the spirit in which it is offered.”
Marilyn McEntyre, Caring For Words in a Culture of Lies
My Thoughts on the Long Sentence
The Long Sentence is an act of defiance –
a spiritual practice of sorts –
a sorting- a seeing- a savoring-
The Long Sentence is a praxis in the thoughtful-
The Long Sentence wraps solace around a soul struggling to bear the burden of rush and chatter and bother –
The Long Sentence forms a barrier against the invasion of instantaneousness and the addiction of adrenaline –
against numbing, ignorance, against steamrolling ahead without retrospect –
shields from the scroll, scroll, scroll-
They tell us to dive deep, leave the shallows, dig down, double down, decipher-
Long sentences mold the mind,
inspire inquisitiveness,
ask for attention –
push us to ponder, expect us to envision, necessitate noticing-
They challenge that we genuinely listen, honestly hearken to, the twitter of reason minus the tweeting of hollow and trifling words –
They rebel at the idea of skimming, barely breaking the surface, rippling along the top as a skipping stone –
They invite one to sit and stay,
to light a fire,
percolate the coffee,
settle in-
They scoff at hasty sandwiches, have an ardent desire to feast, sip the fine wine-
The Long Sentence calls for consideration, searches out a studious psyche-
beckons to the thinker,
asks us to experience emotion, shun the heedless senselessness of the sensational-
embrace effort and exert intellect-
They are adamant we acknowledge insight, examine integrity, discern with diligence-
The Long Sentence will disciple us in direction, shepherd us in solicitude, quiet us-
Fight to free us from the fickle-
fend off the agitation of futile information-
hush the hullabaloo and hub-bub of the shoddy, the gaudy, the tawdry-
The Long Sentence is a literary hope, a personifier of beauty, a call to action.
The Long Sentence desires us to grow, requires us to know, emboldens us to slow.
The Long Sentence offers the invitation, hands it to us, steps back-
it hovers in our hand and we have a choice.
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