Style, Structure, and John McPhee

Diagram of "Travels in Georgia," from John McPhee's "Structure"

Is structure an element of style? Not usually, says Terry Eagleton, in his recent review of Ludovico Silva’s Marx’s Literary Style. Eagleton writes, 

Yet the concept of style stretches to more than imagery, and Silva’s book is largely silent about these other aspects: tone, rhythm, pace, pitch, mood, syntax, texture and so on. Instead, it turns its attention to the formal structure of Marx’s texts, though one wouldn’t usually include structure under the heading of style. [“Be like the Silkworm,” London Review of Books, June 29, 2023]

It’s an interesting question. John McPhee, in his Draft No. 4 (2017), says, “To some extent, the structure of a composition dictates itself, and to some extent it does not. Where you have a free hand, you can make interesting choices.” Where you have a free hand - right there, I think, is where style comes in. 

Structure is one of McPhee’s stylistic resources: see, for example, his artful use of flashback in “Travels in Georgia” and “The Encircled River," among other great pieces. William L. Howarth, in his excellent Introduction to The John McPhee Reader (1991), says, “Structural order is not just a means of self-discipline for McPhee the writer; it is the main ingredient in his work that attracts his reader.” I agree. To me, structure is an essential aspect of McPhee’s extraordinary style.