I think there are authors where this definitely applies and I don’t think Steinbeck is one of them.
It feels analogous to complaining about how Michelangelo painted the Sistine chapel on the ceiling instead of on a canvas where we wouldn’t have to crane our necks to see it.
Here ya go with literally an order of magnitude fewer words:
> The Salinas Valley cycles through wet and dry decades. Droughts cause ruin and exodus, yet people always forget the previous climate phase.
I dunno, doesn't seem to have the same impact on me. Maybe there is something to that whole prose thing.
I think there are authors where this definitely applies and I don’t think Steinbeck is one of them.
It feels analogous to complaining about how Michelangelo painted the Sistine chapel on the ceiling instead of on a canvas where we wouldn’t have to crane our necks to see it.
"yes, I would my steak well done and macerated into an easily digestible paste with no seasoning".
There's more to good prose than just conveying the bare nutrients, y'know?
Maybe he could have just replaced that whole section with a couple graphs showing average rainfall and crop yield for the Salinas Valley.