Here’s a brilliant lecture, brilliantly animated, on “divergent thinking.” Sir Ken Robinson speaks directly to Figaro’s current dilemma. He (that is, Jay) is writing a book on using figures to make your words memorable. The dilemma: do we open readers up to the richness of possibility—the idea that any one sentence can be written a thousand equally valid ways—or we set hard and fast rules?
On one side, we have the great enlightenment philosopher Desiderius Erasmus. He argued for copia, a celebration of God’s riches through our language. Shakespeare copiously followed this generous philosophy. On the opposite side, we have Strunk & White and education systems. (In his lecture, Sir Ken Robinson even manages to link the ADHD “epidemic” to standardized testing!)
Watch the video, then please advise in the comments.