Forget grammar apps and think about potatoes
You've heard of Hemingway, the editing app.
The app highlights lengthy, complex sentences and common errors; if you see a yellow sentence, shorten or split it. If you see a red highlight, your sentence is so dense and complicated that your readers will get lost trying to follow its meandering, convoluted logic.
But what if. What if I do not want to be spare and tight? Perhaps I do not want to be a drunk with four overlapping wives? Hm?
What if I want prose so dense and complicated that my readers will get lost trying to follow its meandering, convoluted logic? Perhaps I want one wife for nearly forty years? What if I want aggressive repetition, continuous present, rhythm and rhythm and rhythm neverending? What if I want to forget grammar and think about potatoes?
Perhaps I want to tick a box
☐ set these words free from the shackles of meaning and grammatical function, make them unfamiliar, and charged with the power to make the world afresh
Gertrude Stein would never countenance an editing app. Not even publishers attempting to proofread her work. If a reader didn't understand what she wrote she suggested they read it again. Read it until they did.
The potatoes and tick box quotes are from Gertrude Stein An Afterlife by Francesca Wade, which I wrote a post about 29th December 2025.
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