It’s part of a sea change taking place in the dominant attitude towards writing, literature and literacy in general. Blogging, texting, flash fiction, TV pronoun use, political sound-bites, and best-sellers written at third-grade level are all part of the picture. It’s the product of technology plus a break-down in the quality of education. Like you with Rushdie, I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a mystery by Boris Akunin.

Btw, you may want to check out this DWT post.

I find myself pouring through books that all read and sound the same all year long, and then I’ll find that the one book who’s style sticks in my head will be something along the lines of Salman Rushdie’s like in the Moor’s Last Sigh, which, if anything, is expansive in style.

(please don’t tell me expansive is like detrimental, another “big” word. I’ll give up writing for good if that’s the case…)