How to Write a Sentence:
And How To Read One
Stanley Fish
HarperCollins
Dh76
Stanley Fish considers himself a connoisseur. "Some appreciate fine art; others appreciate fine wines. I appreciate fine sentences." (Note that it takes him two sentences to say so, perhaps out of fear that he should seem too self-appreciative.) As an academic, New York Times columnist and author of a number of books on Renaissance poetry and US law, Fish is unusually well equipped to appreciate a well-turned period. In this slim book, a cross between a self-help pamphlet and literary essay, he aims to instruct us on how to write and read good ones.
Fish is right that a good writer must also be a good reader, but the connoisseur can all too easily come off as a smug elitist, coddling obscure knowledge for the sake of it. The problem with connoisseurship is that it's more interested in itself than the thing it cares about: the connoisseur's passion thrives on the imagined admiration of others.
Still, any serious reader will understand what Fish means by sentence appreciation - there are some sentences that insist on their own beauty. I have my own cache of favourites and could give little lectures on each of their finer points. Consider, for example, the sad, funny commas, the gradually deflating pomposity that give this observation by Donald Barthelme the sting of truth: "Self-actualization is not to be achieved in terms of another person, but you don't know that, when you begin." As Fish says of a bon mot by a Supreme Court judge, "I carry that sentence around with me as others might carry a precious gem or a fine Swiss watch." He doesn't pause to unpick the implications of comparing sentences to expensive status symbols, as if the whole of literature could be ground up into its constituent propositions and sold off as a national asset.
Fish is that other kind of national asset, a public intellectual, and as such it is his professional duty to court mild controversy. Duly, the book offers the scandalous idea that composition should be taught without content. Rather than teach students to use language by finding out what they want to say, they should first find out how to write and afterwards decide what they want to write about: "It may sound paradoxical, but verbal fluency is the product of hours spent writing about nothing." Again, it's impossible to entirely agree or disagree. Many writers at some stage of their lives spend hours writing pages of introspection or mundane observation, which is essentially "writing about nothing", though it probably doesn't feel like a mere formal exercise at the time.
Besides, every old curmudgeon believes in the virtues of a proper grounding in grammar. At least Fish doesn't fall into the misty-eyes-and-jackboots trap of insisting that children sit in rows memorising grammatical terms. Such is his faith in the mechanisms of the English language that he believes it will call upon our instincts and elicit perfectly formed sentences by the sheer force of its inner structure. He may be right: neuroscientists have found evidence that some aspects of grammar come naturally to us.
Yet Fish's substitutions for existing grammatical terms are just as unwieldy. A student intimidated by talk of nouns and sub-clauses probably won't be reassured to hear that "if one understands that a sentence is a structure of logical relationships and that the number of relationships involved is finite, one understands too that there is only one error to worry about: the error of being illogical". Fish's advice presupposes a pretty high degree of linguistic competence. It might suit a first-year undergraduate daunted by essays, for whom this book could be an encouraging but dull present.
Fish takes seriously the ambition of the book's title, How To Write A Sentence. He recommends copying the form of admirable sentences to produce our own from scratch, just as a chef's memorised recipes help her improvise in the kitchen. Again, there's something in this - inventive plagiarism is a good way of learning technique. But Fish's approach is too formulaic. Apeing Updike's observation of a baseball home run - "It was in the books while it was still in the sky" - he comes up with a few alternatives, including: "It was in my stomach while it was still on the shelf." He acknowledges that his sentences don't match the original, but claims "a somewhat similar effect". I'm not sure that about that - it's certainly very far from the distinctive strangeness of Updike's original.
Fish claims that writers love sentences in the same way that painters love paint. This seems to exclude those - hacks, maybe, but writers nevertheless - who churn out action thrillers or supernatural mysteries where the pleasures are all in the plot. It also leaves out authors such as Franz Kafka and Julio Cortazar, to name two, whose interest in the mechanics of narrative and fiction goes beyond the atomic level of the sentence. Of course it is clear what Fish means: without at least a passing interest in the materiality of language, you'd probably do better in another profession. But to claim love of sentences as the main distinguishing feature of the writer impoverishes the practice of writing. Samuel Beckett was a great writer of sentences - "All I know is what the words know, and dead things, and that makes a handsome little sum, with a beginning and a middle and an end, as in the well-built phrase and the long sonata of the dead" - but his relationship to the sentence is far more ambivalent than that of a craftsman to his well-made wares. Real writing aims at more than beauty or precision.
Fish does acknowledge this difficulty in isolating the sentence: "Why are these imitations so lame, aside from the fact that I, not Swift, wrote them? It is because nothing is at stake; their subject matter is trivial; there is nothing behind them, they are little more than a trick." Yet a few pages later we are told that an understanding of the plot of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is only incidental to our appreciation of its last sentence ("He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance"). Fish can't make up his mind where he stands. "I concentrated on language's forms, but matters of substance kept seeping in; […] I surrendered to content, but my analyses always wanted to return to form." It's the meaningless distinction between form and content that is at fault here, and as long as Fish pursues it he comes up against the same problem. Pure form no more exists than pure content transmitted straight from mind to mind. Fish does know this - he even points it out himself - but he keeps getting stuck between the tracks of the opposition that he has created.
Language is a strange medium to work in because there is nothing to "go through". A mason might discover resistance in the stone, just as a filmmaker is up against the technological limits of her chosen form, but writing can feel like conjuring from thin air. This overwhelming freedom is frightening, and it's tempting to do as Fish does and look for simple rules. He approvingly quotes Wordsworth on "the weight of too much liberty", concluding, "If… there are an infinite number of moves to perform, the significance of any one of them may be difficult to discern." But it may be that, however hard we try to find limits for writing, the moves we can perform really do remain infinite, and significance difficult to discern. That's what makes the practice of writing so beguilingly difficult, and what makes beautiful sentences, when they appear, feel like miracles.
Hannah Forbes Black is a writer and artist who lives in London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and Intelligence Squared.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S E Performance: the specs
Engine: 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 plus rear-mounted electric motor
Power: 843hp at N/A rpm
Torque: 1470Nm N/A rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.6L/100km
On sale: October to December
Price: From Dh875,000 (estimate)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
More coverage from the Future Forum
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
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The biog
Favourite food: Tabbouleh, greek salad and sushi
Favourite TV show: That 70s Show
Favourite animal: Ferrets, they are smart, sensitive, playful and loving
Favourite holiday destination: Seychelles, my resolution for 2020 is to visit as many spiritual retreats and animal shelters across the world as I can
Name of first pet: Eddy, a Persian cat that showed up at our home
Favourite dog breed: I love them all - if I had to pick Yorkshire terrier for small dogs and St Bernard's for big
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
RESULT
Argentina 0 Croatia 3
Croatia: Rebic (53'), Modric (80'), Rakitic (90' 1)
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
The drill
Recharge as needed, says Mat Dryden: “We try to make it a rule that every two to three months, even if it’s for four days, we get away, get some time together, recharge, refresh.” The couple take an hour a day to check into their businesses and that’s it.
Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”
Be a team, suggests Addo: “When training together, you have to trust in each other’s abilities. Otherwise working out together very quickly becomes one person training the other.”
Pull your weight, says Thuymi Do: “To do what we do, there definitely can be no lazy member of the team.”
Teachers' pay - what you need to know
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors