William Faulkner that he "had never been known to use a word that might send the reader to the dictionary." Hemingway responded by saying, "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don't know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use." George Orwell mocked logorrhea in "Politics and the English Language" (1946) by taking verse (9:11) from the book of Ecclesiastes in the King James Version of the Bible: and rewriting it as In contrast, though, some authors warn against pursuing concise writing for its own sake. Literary critic Sven Birkerts, for instance, notes that authors striving to reduce verbosity might produce prose that is unclear in its message or dry in style. "There's no vivid world where every character speaks in one-line, three-word sentences," he notes. There is a danger that the avoidance of prolixity can produce writing that feels unnatural or sterile. Physicist Richard Feynman has spoken out against verbosity in scientific writing. Wordiness is common in informal or playful conversation, lyrics, and comedy. See also Bloviation, a style of empty, pompous political speech Bullshit bingo Cantinflear Elaboration Gift of the gab Glittering generality Gobbledygook, nonsensical speech List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English Logorrhea (psychology) Obfuscation, intentionally confusing wording to confuse people Pleonasm, use of more words than is necessary for expression Readability Redundancy (linguistics) Tachylalia, extremely rapid speech References Further reading Dan Lyons, "On Mute: Overtalkers are everywhere – but saying less will get you more", Time, vol. 201, nos. 3–4 (30 Jan., 6 Feb. 2023), pp. 62–66. Grammar Phraseology Rhetoric Semantics Language varieties and styles Literary terminology Style (fiction) Writing