The Bulwar Lytton contest? Sounds interesting. While it is true that communication of ideas today demands a rather more direct means of expression than the style utilized in the quote, or in Mencken, for example, to be effective, there is still no shortage of obfuscation in modern discourse, in journalism, or in essays intended to exemplify precision. In the rush to get "information" across, in order to reach the greatest number, too often the result becomes a homogenized reflection of society's middle road. Stylistic individuality is often viewed as indulgence, and more often than not, it is. But there will always be new voices setting standards outside the norm. That's my optimistic view, anyway.

The collection of Edmund Wilson's reviews, "Classics and Commercials: A Literary Chronicle of the 1940's" contains a full number of incisive, entertaining and intellectually charged examples of what literary criticism at its best. Only the Dali review is consciously impenetrable.