[jrflowers]

> because reading and writing well-written prose is meaningful and enjoyable?

This is not prose, it is exposition. It is perfectly valid to critique any expository essay, especially one of this length, for its density (or lack thereof) of substantive information.

[pavo-etc]

Sometimes writing can both contain information and be beautiful? This article is charming and thoughtful. Its style may not be for everyone, but for me it really hit, I am thoroughly enjoying reading it. Its style gives me no problem calling it prose.

A person writing an essay on their own site doesn't need to have the information density of bus timetable.

[bendmorris]

This a hilariously ironic parallel to the debate over whether code is an art or a science, referenced right in the article. It can be both.

[mirawelner]

I somewhat disagree that this is not prose? This didn't seem like a purely expository piece. Like if it were just a straightforward technical piece than yeah its way to long, it could have been a few sentences.

But this seemed like it bridges the gap between prose and an expository essay -it was doing both.

[jrflowers]

> prose and an expository essay -it was doing both.

Putting prose in an essay means there are more valid criticisms of a piece of writing, not fewer. If somebody is breakdancing and reciting the periodic table at the same time it’s ok if somebody notices if they skipped the lanthanides and actinides.

I’m a fan of blending the two! It’s just really really hard to do both well at the same time. My most recent example is Malcolm Harris’ history of Palo Alto, it is incredibly well-done.

[mirawelner]

Sure, but the specific critique that it is too verbose seems less valid if one of the primary purposes of the piece was to be prose.

[jrflowers]

That’s kind of the point that I was making. When you mash the two together, both lenses are valid critiques.

It’s an exponentially more difficult way to accomplish either goal because one reader will see it and think “this is a sixteen thousand word essay that says very little” and another will see it and think “what a wonderful story” and there’s nobody to adjudicate who is correct.

Like I posted “this is sixteen thousand words about how the author doesn’t really use language models but might one day” and some folks’ rebuttal is that they enjoyed reading it. Those are two completely unrelated things! It’s like if folks saw the cover of The Hobbit and thought “Hell yeah!” and then when they read “there and back again” thought “whoever wrote that was being unnecessarily reductive”