Hello, fellow shipmates!
Robin suggested that we talk about what we admire in a prose stylist and who we would like, as writers, to be when we grow up. My own fiction writing, when left to its own devices, follows more old-fashioned patterns. The writers who resonate with me in terms of fiction style are Michel Faber, Virginia Woolf, J.R.R. Tolkien, Edward Rutherford, and a whole cavalcade of 19th century authors. All those clauses and long sentences these writers employ are a little bit like decorative cake baking. (Which I have never done, but enjoy watching in fast-motion on YouTube.*) Each clause layers on the one before, and by the end, I feel the whole sentence-cake is more delicious than any single layer of icing or decoration would have been on its own.
An authorial narrator, the one who comes off the page and interacts with the reader directly in the persona of telling the story and having all the relevant information the reader needs, is also a favorite stylistic device of mine. That's something many 19th century authors do, and it draws me more deeply into the story to feel as though I am in conversation with my book. Henry Fielding is my best example of an authorial narrator. That quality of being the narrator's confidant, or particular audience, is why I also enjoy the first person point of view so much. Whether in fiction or nonfiction, the first person voice is what draws me to writers from Laurie R. King, Paul Auster, and Dave Barry to Harper Lee, Jane Austen, and J.D. Salinger.
It's my first entry, so I was definitely more informal here than I'll be in the actual Assignment assignments. But I think I am going to be updating this blog more often than is required, and I'll be waxing philosophical, poetical, and any other -icals that reasonably pertain to close reading.
See you Wednesday!
*For an example of decorative cake baking, please follow this link to YouTube and the construction of a magnificent LEGO Batman cake.
