Goffman's Sentences (1)

A sentence does not have to be simple to be good. Consider this one, taken from Erving Goffman's Asylums:

Some establishments, like Grand Central Station, are open to anyone who is decently behaved; others, like the Union League Club of New York or the laboratories at Los Alamos, are felt to be somewhat snippy about who is let in. (15)

Notice that it makes perfect sense if we take out the parenthetical examples:

Some establishments are open to anyone who is decently behaved; others are felt to be somewhat snippy about who is let in.

But notice also that those examples justify the colloquial language at the end ("snippy"), which is a nice touch but needs the context of a private club to seem fitting in an academic paper. Notice also that the mention of Los Alamos gives "snippy" the jocular sense it needs by introducing an example of what most people would grant is a legimately exclusive establishment.

The sentence does not tell us something we don't already know. It reminds the reader of differences between kinds of institutions. And it is written with an easy manner that suits that purpose perfectly.