On 12 Jan 2011 at 10:03, Annette Taylor wrote:
I believe some of you will be interested in the piece onCharles Dickensat this website: http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/11-01-12/ Interesting, yes. Good, no. I posted this as my comment about it on the site. It´s unfortunate that we weren´t given the opportunity to test our literary skill on Bulwer-Lytton and Darwin ourselves (at least, I couldn´t find it). On the Simkin study itself, it rests on the premise that Bulwer-Lytton was truly one of the worst writers of all time. As RoseAnne Mussar notes in her comment, this is not necessarily the case, and Simkin presents no documentation in support. It seems to me it is based solely on the judgement of cartoonist Charles Shulz and his ridicule of "It was a dark and stormy night" in "Peanuts" starting in 1965. As most of us have never read Bulwer-Lytton, we have no idea. Thomas Morgan (http://freepages.pavilion.net/tartarus/lytton.html) has, and his judgement is less harsh. He quotes the noted horror author H.P. Lovecraft´s comment that one of Bulwer-Lytton´s stories is "one of the best short haunted-house tales ever written´." So Simkin´s study is a dark and stormy one, and it demonstrates no more than both he and Darwin had similar writing styles at a time when such a style was common. Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=7865 or send a blank email to leave-7865-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
