
The Poison Fish (1970) - apsec112
http://www.kristisiegel.com/engfish2.htm
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stagbeetle
The author is complaining that formal education is strangling the soul of
beautiful English to death.

There's some truth to this, although his protests are misaligned. Regimented
English classes are not the proper breeding grounds for writing with
individualistic expression, they are simply to teach students how to
communicate eloquently. Essays and research papers are meant only to
communicate and persuade, not enrich and entertain, as one commenter has
implied.

If one wishes to dine with Twain and Bonte, they can do so in the myriad of
creative writing courses available to them. But there is simply no _practical_
use in the idealistic battle between creatives and _the man,_ the corporates,
the zombies here.

It's a noble pursuit and should flourish, but it's barking up the wrong tree.

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nilved
About 1% of this is readable to me, can someone elucidate?

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codefined
It seems very metaphorical, so I might have not gotten the correct meaning
either, however I believe it's talking about people making sentences more
complex for no reason.

English teachers consider writing to be something that needs to flow and be
emotive, but for the vast majority of tasks it should simply be an efficient
way of conveying some piece of information.

Basically, students are optimising their writing for teachers approval, which
isn't useful for the vast majority of real life, like the example of asking
for directions; "Will you show me the most effective way to the bus stop?" vs.
"How do I get to the bus stop?"

~~~
ams6110
My 10th grade English teacher was a big proponent of Strunk and White's
_Elements of Style_. He encouraged and rewarded straightforward writing. He
was one of the top two or three teachers that I ever had.

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ourmandave
I saw the year and thought this was going to be related to Kentucky Fried
Movie's _High Adventure_ segment about the poisonous fish.

[https://youtu.be/0dpkbHmncOA?t=52s](https://youtu.be/0dpkbHmncOA?t=52s)

