Words are more than just a pretty face

Ford has an excellent gift for description, I think.  Whereas Link's style took on a dream-like quality of image after image, developing a crazy-good story, Ford's style often has the ability to paint gorgeous portraits of his characters, worlds, et cetera.  His description  of Hell within "Boatman's Holiday" is a perfect example of this.  Depending on what I'm in the mood for in reading, I find it difficult to choose between the apples and oranges of Link and Ford's respective creations.  That said, I felt that Ford's ideas in his stories were excellent, especially his opinions on art and more specifically, the use of words.  "Boatman's Holiday" underlines the fact that existence comes from thoughts and memory, which is preserved through the written word.  In a more obvious example, "The Weight of Words" engenders the idea that words written in a calculated manner can have an unimaginable effect on the manuscript's readers.  The thought of a mathematical formula designed to "weigh" the value of words intrigued (and somewhat frightened) me.  But my mind drifted to an actual example of weighted words and texts being measured.  Microsoft Word!  Ever take a look at the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Score after you check for spelling errors?  I wondered how my computer measured the readability and grade-level of my writing and it turns out THERE IS A MATHEMATICAL FORMULA!  True, it isn't nearly as outlandish as Ford's theoretical formula, but the fact it exists, that words are components of a formula and everything may, in fact, be calculated mathematically, is still downright creepy.  There is probably a formula out there for the perfect piece of art, based on materials, colors, size, etc.  I don't think I like math having that kind of control...