Midafternoon of infamy (6/2/01)
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Having taken the unusual step of dropping a few of these compendia into a word processor to analyze their content, I discover, either to my chagrin or amusement, that the ongoing quest for the one-sentence summary of the major motion picture has led my prose into an unfamiliar region of baroque complexity; and that the longest single run-on sentence [to date] exceeds two hundred fifty words. — To the best of my knowledge the modern record for European languages is held by Immanuel “Bubba” Kant, who broke the eight-hundred-word barrier somewhere in the
Critique Of Pure Reason [one reason why — I am not making this up — German students are introduced to the
Critique via a retranslation of an English translation of the original]. If Jerry Bruckheimer doesn’t retire, this may lie within reach.
____________Terry Southern (5/31/01)
