WORDS ON THE LINE by Philip Vassallo: July 2019

Friday, July 26, 2019

Splendid Sentences, Part 25: John Hersey on the Effects of Nuclear War

Hiroshima, John Hersey's widely read 1946 account of the aftermath of the maiden dropping of an atomic bomb on a human population, begins with this 65-word sentence:

At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the plant office and was turning her head to speak to the girl at the next desk.

Hersey instantly humanizes this well-known catastrophic event by bringing into the book not world leaders, military strategists, or herculean warriors but regular people, civilian workers with mouths to feed and errands to run.

In beginning a book with a sentence as long as he does, Hersey runs the risk of putting off his readers. But we are drawn in as soon as we read the infamous date.

By preceding the woman's name with Miss and her coworker as girl, we imagine younger people who have their lives ahead of them.

Hersey's use of commonplace details like clerk, personnel department, sitting down, plant office, and desk adds remarkable tension to the preceding clause when the atomic bomb flashed.

The ordinary motion of turning to a coworker also does not escape the reader, this apparently mundane gesture now etched forever in Ms. Sasaki's mind—and ours.

Another striking image: in her place. Hersey could have dispensed with that prepositional phrase. But Ms. Sasaki was supposed to be in that very spot at the East Asia Tin Works. That was her job. Of all the real estate in the world to be sitting in, her place was where the atomic bomb dropped. This image makes me think of the necessity of people living and working in Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. No people, no detonating of an atomic bomb. The sentence is full of humanity like few others.

Read previous installments of "Splendid Sentences" in WORDS ON THE LINE:

Friday, July 19, 2019

Splendid Sentences, Part 24: Samuel P. Huntington on the Greatest Global Threat

Last sentences should be powerful if authors want readers to remember their books. But few capture the imagination as creatively as this final sentence from the 1996 best-selling The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order by Samuel P. Huntington:

In the emerging era, clashes of civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace, and an international order based on civilizations is the surest safeguard against world war.

Rather than analyze the substance of Huntington's brilliant, prophetic pre-9/11 premise (clashes of civilizations), I simply want to focus on the author's rhetorical approach to this 28-word sentence. Note the parallel treatment of greatest threat to world peace with surest safeguard against world war: a negative with a positive followed by a positive with a negative. Clear contrasting expressions equal easier understanding.

Read previous installments of "Splendid Sentences" in WORDS ON THE LINE:

Friday, July 12, 2019

Splendid Sentences, Part 23: Robert Hughes on the Politics of Division

Robert Hughes's 1993 political commentary, Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America, includes this sentence:

To divide a polity you must have scapegoats and hate objects—human caricatures that dramatize the difference between Them and Us.

This 21-word sentence presents six noteworthy rhetorical devices:

The choice of polity – Why not government, society, culture, civilization, or civilized people? Perhaps because he wants to send some readers to the dictionary, but the main reason is polity evokes all those alternative words.
The dropping of a comma after polity – Using the introductory comma would slavishly submit to grammatical standards, and Hughes does not want his readers even to slightly pause at that point.
The choice of you – Hughes could have selected the more grammatically appropriate people or we, or the more politically hyperbolic despots or plutocrats. But he is going for plain speak, not melodrama, drawing attention to an idea, not his use of language.
The use of a dash – A comma after objects would work well here, but as Russell Baker once said, we use dashes to shout. And Hughes shouts at just the right words—human caricatures.
The choice of dramatize – A simpler show, a more academic distinguish, a brighter highlight, or a more dramatic convulse could work here. But dramatize complements caricatures because of the similar images both words conjure.
The capitalization of Them and Us – People have used these contrasting words for generations. They are embedded in American culture, observant for the Australian-born Hughes, who arrived in New York at age 32.

Read previous installments of "Splendid Sentences" in WORDS ON THE LINE:

Friday, July 05, 2019

Splendid Sentences, Part 22: Allan Bloom on Freedom of Mind

In his controversial 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed and Impoverished the Soul of Today's Students, Allan Bloom writes this stunning sentence:

Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even especially, the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts.

Consider how much is happening in this 22-word sentence. Bloom sets up three contrasting ideas, each laid out in parallel form and each giving us a long pause for deep thought:

not only, or not even especially – Although I've been reading for years, I came across this phrase for the first time. So I had to take in the meaning of these transitional phrases: the family not only and the unusually juxtaposed not even especially. Setting off the latter phrase in commas demands at least a slight pause, but making a point of it at all causes the reader to stop and think about a stronger alternative to not only.
the absence of ... the presence of – This contrast seems simple enough, but it is not, because what must be absent and what must be present relate to different spheres: legal constraints to law and alternative thoughts to philosophy.
legal constraints .. alternative thoughts – Both of these phrases neatly include a well balanced adjective and noun, so they are grammatically parallel. But not conceptually. Legal constraints exist whether or not we participate, whether or not we protest on the streets, whether or not we crawl under a manhole cover to sink undetected in a sewer; alternative thoughts requires our recognizing their truthful, sometimes burdensome reality, reckoning with their potentially challenging implications, and doing something about them.