I appreciate your point. I'm also a big fan of The Atlantic and The New Yorker is my favorite magazine. :)
I think most of the magazines' authors write literary pieces without overusing descriptive words. To me adjectives and adverbs are the worst culprits in terms of slowing down readers. It's usually better to pack meaning into verbs.
For example, someone could write, "A tall attractive woman with bright shiny shoes approached the fat gentleman by the bar." Alternatively, he or she could write, "The woman sauntered toward the gentleman by the bar."
While the two sentences aren't equivalent in meaning, they paint a similar picture. The second sentence is better in my opinion because it keeps a certain flow going.
I think most of the magazines' authors write literary pieces without overusing descriptive words. To me adjectives and adverbs are the worst culprits in terms of slowing down readers. It's usually better to pack meaning into verbs.
For example, someone could write, "A tall attractive woman with bright shiny shoes approached the fat gentleman by the bar." Alternatively, he or she could write, "The woman sauntered toward the gentleman by the bar."
While the two sentences aren't equivalent in meaning, they paint a similar picture. The second sentence is better in my opinion because it keeps a certain flow going.
Stephen King wrote about this, referring to adverbs as "flat tires": http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/03/13/stephen-ki...