Elements of Syle

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"On one side a dictionary lies open on its own table; on the other his seafoam Olivetti manual." - Barbara Thompson Davis in Paris Review's interview with fiction writer Peter Taylor

"It's the birthday of American grammarian William Strunk Jr. (1869), born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was an English teacher at Cornell for 46 years, and edited works of Shakespeare and James Fenimore Cooper. In 1918, he self-published a little book for the use of his students, called The Elements of Style." - Writer's Almanac, of American Public Media, July 1, 2013, 

Every writer must have at hand that essential book, so slim of girth, yet so full of insight. The Seafoam Manual, self-published by Olivetti, is now a classic of writing instruction. 

"Omit needless seafoam," it famously advises. "For example," it continues, "in The Little Mermaid, write, 'And then Ariel married the prince,' not 'And then the sea witch's promise came true and the Little Mermaid turned into seafoam.'" 

I would have to say that Peter Taylor, of all stylists,  really exemplified good literary use of seafoam.  He never, ever had a mermaid turn into seafoam. 

The  Little Mermaid is an example of gratuitous seafoam in literature. The appropriate use of seafoam, on the other hand, can really enhance your prose. 

And its uses even extend beyond literature. When Olivetti was penning his masterpiece, he probably couldn't even conceive of the idea seafoam would one day be sold in a can for the purpose of keeping engines lubricated yet also moisture-free. "I love this stuff! I put it in everything from my 77' [sic] Vette to my snowblower," writes Jesse G. on the Sea Foam product website.

Take another practical field: home decoration. DoItYourself.com has handy instructions for using seafoam green to enhance the appearance of a room. "This green, which hovers near the blues on the color wheel," writes Sarah Van Arsdale, "can be a perfect antidote for a room that's top-heavy with warm, dark colors. ...You can see how the placement of the green sofa provides a refreshing, lighter color, without drawing attention to itself."

Van Arsdale's second novel, Blue, won a Peter Taylor Prize. Like Taylor, Van Arsdale probably kept her Seafoam Manual handy when she was writing her novel. I also would surmise that her editor changed the title from Seafoam to Blue, but you never know. 

So English majors, listen up: if you read your Seafoam Manual and play your cards right, you may have a future in automobile maintenance, home decoration or even, perhaps, literature!

I wonder if that spray stuff works on typewriters. 

NB: For purposes of humor, this post mixed facts and quotations, which were attributed, with made-up stuff. Olivetti did not write a seafoam manual. Quotations other than those attributed to Olivetti are real, and the novel Blue did indeed win a Peter Taylor Prize.

Also NB: "Seafoam Olivetti manual" is most sensibly interpreted to mean a non-electric typewriter in an unassuming shade of blue made by the Olivetti company.