I tend to idolize writers who actually utilize the language to unusual effect (as opposed to didactic pedagogues [tautology intended]). People often ask me the sources of my words-for-the-day and some of the more prolific writers in this regard have been WF Buckley, Gene Wolfe, James Joyce, Pynchon, George Will.... (not to say that the political ravings of Buckley and Will aren't occasionally pedantic :)

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