I mentioned last week in this post that I had recently read Gabbert's essay collection. My previous thoughts loosely focused on the two essays I reread, "The Art of the Paragraph" and "Time, Money, Happiness", so let's finish up today with the insights from the rest of my reading, which I've captured in my book notes.
The Word Pretty by Elisa Gabbert (November 2020)
This collection of short essays captures Gabbert's thinking across a wide range of topics. There is no strict pattern to her writing, though each piece did reach certain checkpoints - an observation, a tangent, perhaps an unexpected insight or two, the writing guiding us to the end without ever quite revealing what was coming next. The work throughout The Word Pretty is a good example of how Gabbert describes one way to think of a paragraph - as mini-essays, where the writer can contain digressions while setting a foundation for the remainder of the essay. From my perspective, the way she linked these paragraphs together was the most interesting aspect of the collection, at least from the perspective of a writer.
This brings me to my overall thought about the work, which I consider to be the highest praise I can give after reading - it refueled my interest in writing. As you know, the post from earlier this month was based on the experience of rereading those above mentioned essays. It was also the case a couple of days ago that Gabbert's comment on optimized systems informed my essay about habits and efficiency. These pieces, which I first read in November, have lingered with me. I think the effect a book has on the reader, in terms of generating action, is given too little weight when assessing a work. I read this book and it led to some impetus, certain ideas or curiosity, which prompted me to try a thing or two on my own. I suspect a reader may have a similar reaction to The Word Pretty, even if it's just investigating more of Gabbert's work. It's bafflingly common that we evaluate certain things on their own merits, such as a piece of advice, without considering its effect on people. Is it better to give great advice that is ignored, or decent advice that leads to personal growth? In my mind, if the only result is that someone nods and thinks "OK, that sounds great" but it leads to no other action, well, then maybe we should redefine our idea of great.
TOA Rating: Three parentheses out of four.
