putterings 182 < 183 > 184 index
I don’t too much like
GG : In “Puttering in the Prose Garden,” one of the fine essays in The Writing Habit [1994], you also have a third category that you mention, [which is mega-prose....
DH: ...I have to admit I don’t too much like Guy Davenport’s work, which I discuss in that essay.
GG: You said “eclectic” earlier, and you really meant it.
my landing for this instance —
“Life into Art: A Conversation with David Huddle” (“Recorded at the Appalachian Literary Festival, Emory and Henry College, October 23, 1992”) in George Garrett, Southern Excursions : Views on Southern Letters in My Time (James Conrad McKinley, ed., 2003) : 258 : link
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aside —
I gather (from looking here and there, including an essay by Paulette Alden : link) that the “puttering” essay treats four categories of prose writing: (1) Basic Prose (simple sentences); (2) Window-Pane Prose (graceful, invisible, doesn’t call attention to itself); (3) Personable Prose (intimate, leverages personal style, voice?); and (4) Mega-Prose (heightened, “souped up” language).