The point of the long and winding sentence
latimes.comAs a little addendum to that: the way that the articles of sites of some news agencies have this uncanny tendency to turn every single sentence in a paragraph of its own is something that's been bugging me. I know everyone feels like getting their article online as quickly as possible, but does that really have to make for worse content? I say worse, because if you take a step back and look at one of those articles it just feels like there's way too much whitespace and the entire article just looks like some laid out "tree" for content still to come.
Side note, I've been told, especially when in elementary school, that I made my sentences too long, though I was never sure if it was just the contrast with other kids. Do I still do that? It's been a while since someone told me so, not to mention that I'm not aware whether that property passed over to my English, a language I didn't "properly" start learning in high school, as a third language.
Go read a newspaper. You'll notice that every paragraph is one or two sentences. That's why they do it. They're just transferring the news article from the paper to the web.
When you hide your meaning and the centre of your argument in mazes of long sentences, as the author does, you necessarily lose it a little. Which is kind of the point. If you want to confuse your reader with contradictions and vagueness, then long sentences are a good idea.
I don't think clarity is a bad thing, and certainly doesn't preclude strangeness or multi-faceted descriptions of Istanbul. It does hurt understanding. Even in fiction and poetry, surely writing is primarily a communicator, a tour-guide to your thoughts. Making it easy for your reader to follow you makes it easier to take them on the journey of your choosing. Go slowly over rough terrain; stop and stare at the acropolis; don't run zig-zag through the forest till they can barely keep up.