The Misanthrope’s Corner

A CARDINAL rule of writing is never interrupt yourself to explain something. If you must bring up an obscure topic, drop informative hints about it as you go along so that you don’t end up with the entire explanation all in one place. This keeps you from skidding to a stop and sounding teacherish. Otherwise it’s better to omit the obscure topic altogether, or as mothers might put it: If you can’t say it interestingly, don’t say it at all.

The American way of history turns this rule into a crapshoot, as I discovered recently when I reviewed a biography of John Quincy Adams. A full explanation of what happened would make me sound teacherish, so I’ll just quote the note I faxed to the editor:

About the Author

Florence King

Florence King was a contributing editor of National Review.

A CARDINAL rule of writing is never interrupt yourself to explain something. If you must bring up an obscure topic, drop informative hints about it as you go along so that you don’t end up with the entire explanation all in one place. This keeps you from skidding to a stop and sounding teacherish. Otherwise it’s better to omit the obscure topic altogether, or as mothers might put it: If you can’t say it interestingly, don’t say it at all.

The American way of history turns this rule into a crapshoot, as I discovered recently when I reviewed a biography of John Quincy Adams. A full explanation of what happened would make me sound teacherish, so I’ll just quote the note I faxed to the editor: