The Minimalist Mantra Makes For Bad Prose
Most frustrating are the dudes (always dudes) who have taken the minimalist creed to such an extreme that writing with artificial brevity is almost existential. They are easy to identify. In peer review, they are always critiquing writing as «limp» or «flaccid,» in implied contrast to their own prose – which, I guess, they see as hard and throbbing and veiny and engorged…