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Analyzing the literary Obama

On The Tyee, Crawford Killian reviews Barack Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope. Killian focuses on the Democratic contender’s rhetorical style and notes that he seems to break all the rules of effective communication – but Killian decides that this is a good thing.

Obama has a remarkable fondness for 60-word sentences rich in subordinate clauses.

Reading his book, I itched to edit the text. Short, punchy sentences and paragraphs would jolt readers whether they read him on paper or on a website. Tough editing, I thought, could make it comparable to Tom Paine’s Common Sense – a document to detonate a revolution.

On reflection, though, I recalled that Common Sense wasn’t written in short, punchy sentences either.

Ultimately, argues Killian, Obama’s long-winded style is a rare and welcome sign of respect for his audience.

For decades, Canadian and American politicians (and their apologists) have chosen one of two registers: the windbag addressing millions, or the con artist addressing halfwits. For the halfwits, short words in short sentences are essential. For the quarter-wits, make it a 10-second sound bite.

Such registers convey a contempt quite as thorough as Conrad Black’s. Yet North American voters have tolerated this contempt, even seemed to demand it, since Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney.

Now, after two or three decades of discourse in this moronic register, Barack Obama is talking to American voters as if they didn’t have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

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