Is ‘Less’ Really ‘More’?

[Katzelmacher]

I’ve seen this phrase bandied about a helluva lot of the last twenty+ years or so. So much, that it seems to have become an unexamined, accepted truth.

Personally, I think it’s just lazy thinking.

Less can certainly be more. But not all the time. Sometimes, ‘more’ is more appropriate than ‘less’. Sometimes, I want more!

I can think of a fair few creative artists who might have agreed with me.

[Bella Kemp]

In current schools of creative writing I believe the fashion is to cut out 'unnecessary' words. The result is the bloodless novels that pass for literary fiction these days. Give me Dickens, Conrad, Virginia Woolf any day.

[muzzer]

In current schools of creative writing I believe the fashion is to cut out 'unnecessary' words. The result is the bloodless novels that pass for literary fiction these days. Give me Dickens, Conrad, Virginia Woolf any day.

YES.

[Katzelmacher]

In current schools of creative writing I believe the fashion is to cut out 'unnecessary' words. The result is the bloodless novels that pass for literary fiction these days. Give me Dickens, Conrad, Virginia Woolf any day.

That’s the kind of system that will actually discriminate against a kid with a wide vocabulary, so they will be penalised for intellectual curiosity. Horrible.

[Ein Heldenleben]

In current schools of creative writing I believe the fashion is to cut out 'unnecessary' words. The result is the bloodless novels that pass for literary fiction these days. Give me Dickens, Conrad, Virginia Woolf any day.

In the case of Dickens less really is less..

[Serial_Apologist]

I have always thought that "less is more" refers to having a happy life, not dependent on having too many possessions.

[muzzer]

Occam’s Razor can give a brutal shave.

[gradus]

Acting too seemed to go through a less is more phase not long ago, with horrible flat recitations of lines that earlier generations had brought to life.

[cloughie]

In recording is multi-miking always good? no!

AND

Which, if any, of the old pop recordings were really improved by the addition of the RPO - eg the Beach Boys recording certainly did not require any tampering, tinkering or addition - Aretha and Ella’s recordings needed no modification from the Arif Mardi and Norman Granz originals.

[Beresford]

More intelligent lifts, like the one in Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which engages you in a conversation as to whether it would be better to go UP or DOWN.
Or more intelligent adverts, that can give you better choices.

[eighthobstruction]

....

[Serial_Apologist]

....

He had nothing to say, and he said it.

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/939306-he-hd-nothing-to-say-and-he-said-it

[Dave2002]

In current schools of creative writing I believe the fashion is to cut out 'unnecessary' words. The result is the bloodless novels that pass for literary fiction these days. Give me Dickens, Conrad, Virginia Woolf any day.

That may be true for some authors - but isn't necessarily always the case. There is a lot of merit in writing concisely. A good author should be able to write concisely, as well as effectively.

In other areas cutting material might work well. Over the last year I have been writing/arranging music, and there is often a tendency to extend short pieces to make longer ones, or to add extra instruments and parts to make a more impressive and significant whole.
Sometimes however things work better if shortened, and/or if instrumentation is pruned down - which can give a clearer sound and avoid a heavily congested and muddy sound.

There was a report recently that when people are asked to modify designs they tend to add features, rather than remove them.
It is probably always worth at least considering whether small designs with fewer features will work as well or better than more elaborate ones.

I can think of some equipment designs which would almost certainly have been better with fewer features.

So yes - sometimes - though not always - less is actually more.

[jayne lee wilson]

I don't think there's any rule or even a fashion....is there?

In Art, form may follow function and in reverse. The most ornamental creations serve their own purposes.
So Henry James' elaborate. or elaborated, sentences express his vision, the unique qualities of his emotional affections, and Albert Camus or Hemingway of the lapidary style are entirely apt to their purpose.

Personally I prefer writing, especially Poetry, that charges words with meaning; as few as possible to convey as much meaning, or suggestive power, as possible. You could take 3 hours figuring out 3 lines of John Berryman or Geoffrey Hill.
In fact in such as Mallarmé or Wallace Stevens this can lead to a different kind of opacity - but that's another discussion. (Imagism took it the other way - pared back economy and lucidity).

The Prose Poem began in Europe as a reaction to, liberation from, the strict traditions of the verse line.

I always found The 19thC Novel, whether Hugo or Dickens or George Eliot - almost impossible to face in their voluminousness, let alone get through.
I put up with it for Stendhal, but Flaubert was a better temperamental & aesthetical fit. Give me Kafka or Musil or Robbe-Grillet, thank you...if the work be long, let it be in short sections, please...

In music, repetition is interesting. The finales of such as Arnold's 6th or DSCH 5 hammer on and on, but you would never say a note was wasted in both intense, concise structures.
Was the Beethoven 6 (i) proto-minimalist development prolix? Surely not.
Robin Holloway often uses many notes, but they serve his own unique expressive purposes in the effects they create. Simpson or David Matthews, often concision to a similar end. This doesn't rule out local disordering or ornament.
How do you decide, or feel, that just-so-many repetitions become too many? If you find a minimalist work devoid of meaning in its varied or unvaried repetitions you probably haven't understood it.

***
Less-is-more is definitely a good way to go with personal appearance as you age. Ex-fashionistas like me find refuge in all-black, lightened with earth tones in warmer weather. Elaborate often heeled and multiply-strapped footwear gratefully replaced with Trainers (black/white, not of the fantastical varieties, much as I admire them).

But always topped off with shades...

[Old Grumpy]

I've certainly read about jazz musicians who suggest the silences in the music are as important as the played notes. I guess this would fit with the ethos of less is more.