Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life

Adorno lists a series of tips for writers. Writers should check to make sure the “central motif” (85) is clear in every paragraph and should never be reluctant to delete something. It is okay to have clichés if they are just one word rather than phrases. Writers can ruin good ideas by expressing them with too much style. When a writer finishes their work, they should work to address any perceived flaws, no matter how minor.

When exploring extremes with dialectic thought, writers should not worry about limitations, which are just imposed through “social control” (86). Beautiful prose is simply anything that expresses what the author intends. Well-written texts are “tight” and “transparent” like “spiders’ webs” (87). Writers live in their writing, but in the process of editing the text and eliminating parts of it, writers cannot stay in their own texts.

Everyone has a life or personality that reflects a character from fairy tales. Examples listed by Adorno include a beautiful person who looks at themselves in the mirror like the Evil Queen from Snow White, the boy who sets out on an adventure to find his fortune, and women who deal with dangers as they set out in a city like Little Red Riding Hood.