Style
Peck was not an experienced writer, and made no pretensions to literary quality in his work; his book has been criticized for its "inept and pretentious style." He wrote in the manner of popular magazines, travelogues, and advertising copy; Coöperative City is "the most beautiful city in all the world," and its buildings and features are described as "delightful," "elegant," "heavenly," and "magnificent." As Brantford progresses through his tour of the city, his comments are along the lines of "Wonderful, wonderful! and what marvelous changes from my former life!" In describing a private home, Peck writes, "Our readers, no doubt, will feel interested to know something of the character and style of this beautiful home....Here was to be found every convenience and luxury known to those living in the last century."
Beyond the verbal expression, Peck's esthetic is shaped by his professional experience: his future is clean and polished, well-organized and brightly displayed. His world is very much like a department store.
Read more about this topic: The World A Department Store
Famous quotes containing the word style:
“I shall christen this style the Mandarin, since it is beloved by literary pundits, by those who would make the written word as unlike as possible to the spoken one. It is the style of all those writers whose tendency is to make their language convey more than they mean or more than they feel, it is the style of most artists and all humbugs.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“A cultivated style would be like a mask. Everybody knows it’s a mask, and sooner or later you must show yourself—or at least, you show yourself as someone who could not afford to show himself, and so created something to hide behind.... You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.”
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)
“Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)