Dave's rules on breaking rules

Here is how I define the progression through just about any field of endeavor:

1. Novice: Doesn't know the rules
2. Amateur: Knows the rules but has trouble following them all
3. Pro: Knows the rules, can even start to bend them a bit when necessary
4. Genius: Knows the rules, breaks them, creates new rules, the cycle begins again
5. Jerk: Former genius who is just tiresome about it now

So why all that? Well, let's take the field of writing ... the rules being grammar, spelling, narrative structure, etc. David Foster Wallace was a genius with Infinite Jest ... but with Oblivion? Maybe starting to border on jerk?

I mean, come on ... even the most basic typewriter can create a paragraph indent ... it's called the TAB key, man, learn to love it!

Geez, I get it, you are a complex writer challenging the reader ... move on. Over-long paragraphs and sentences are so 60s.