Quote of the Day, 2/03/07: Using Language Well

Wandering from link to link... to link to link to link... I come across so many things worth mentioning that I'm often too overwhelmed to mention them. Especially when faced with the daunting task of crediting all the right people with pointing me the way to whatever gem I found.

So for this, never mind how I got there, but consider this fabulous quote I found over at Poynter Online. The quote is from David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster, which I now have to go check out on my next book run.

The reality I care about most is that some people still want to use the language well. They want to write effectively; they want to speak effectively. They want their language to be graceful at times and powerful at times. They want to understand how to use words well, how to manipulate sentences, and how to move about in the language without seeming to flail. They want good grammar, but they want more: they want rhetoric in the traditional sense. That is, they want to use the language deftly so that it's fit for their purposes.

I think that's (a) wonderful if it's true and (b) beautifully written.