The Weapon of Mass Seduction

      American writers, it seems, have seen the enemy, and it is Thomas Browne.   And Samuel Johnson.   And Evelyn Waugh. And Thomas Carlyle. And John Dryden.   And, in fact, any writer availed to devices of nuance.

      Gee, I wonder why....

      (Now rewrite that first paragraph with semicolons, and you tell me which works better, the hamfisted thumping of the periods, or the subtle twisting of the semicolons.)