A quick lesson in effective communication from Basil the Great

Remember that time you confused Hemingway with Basil the Great? I was reading something by St. Basil the other day and was amused by the overlap.

“[T]he excellence proper to discourse is neither to hide the things signified in obscurity,” said Basil, “nor to be redundant and empty, turning in all directions while overflowing randomly.”

Clarity and economy. The thought reminded me of Hemingway’s comment on writing as architecture.

In his day, Basil was a popular writer and rhetorician, schooled in literature and practiced in public reading and homiletics. His editorial sentiment here is one born of loads of practice and worth heeding:

Know your point and get to it quickly.