No one expects to open an instruction book for the latest household geegaw and discover a literary treasure. Ad copy and owners manuals are hardly fertile forms for would-be Phillip Roths, but couldn't we at least expect Hemingway's terse clarity?
Why must consumers struggle through Joycian tangles to set the alarm clock, to run the washing machine, to properly steep tea, or even to decide which bag of "grab and go" chips to snag?
Bad language is everywhere, and it's someone's fault. Perhaps the companies that hire Kerouac wanna-be's to kick out ad copy, or the would-be poets themselves, scraping to pay the bills. We're looking at writing no one expects will sing, but which all of us need to speak clearly.
