Robgraham said:
My God! That's the longest sentence I've seen since Ronnie Biggs was
sent to jail.
Long sentences are not, necessarily, to be avoided. For example, here's the
opening sentence to a best selling novel:
--- begin quote
That was the summer we lost the bald Jeeter who was not even mostly Jeeter
anymore but was probably mostly Throckmorton or anyway was probably
considered mostly Throckmorton which was an appreciable step up from being
considered mostly Jeeter since Jeeters hadn't ever been anything much while
Throckmortons had in fact been something once previously before the money
got gone and the prestige fell away leaving merely the bluster and the taint
and the general Throckmorton aroma all of which taken together hardly made
for a legacy worth getting stirred up over but any one of which taken singly
still outstripped the entire bulk of advancements ever attempted and
realized by Jeeters who had scratched around in the dirt but were not much
accomplished at farming and who had speculated in herds of cattle but were
not much accomplished at speculating either and who at last had turned their
energies to the construction of a henhouse which commenced ramshackle and
got worse but became nonetheless the chief Jeeter advancement along with the
hens and the little speckled brown eggs and the localized ammonia cloud
which was itself most probably the primary Jeeter success though no
particular Jeeter or group of Jeeters together actually contributed to it or
could prevent it either so when the bald Jeeter, with the fat Jeeter as her
maid of honor, exchanged vows with Braxton Porter Throckmorton III in the
sanctuary of the Methodist church on Saturday June the twelfth, 1942, and
afterwards set up house in Neely proper she got away from the hens and the
henhouse and out from under the ammonia cloud which was most likely
beginning to expand in June 1942 since it set in to expanding most every
June and swelled straight through August and on into September, especially
this past August and especially this past September when it was bearing down
on the town limits and posing some threat to the icehouse which was regular
and ordinary for the season, particularly in August and particularly in
September, so we were having what had come to be our usual summer straight
up to the moment Mr. Derwood Bridger laid his ladder against the
Throckmorton clapboard and climbed to the upper story where he pressed his
nose to the bedroom windowscreen and shaded his eyes and called and hollered
and shrieked at the bald Jeeter until he was satisfied that she was gone
from us for good."
--- end quote
References on request.
