[stylist] Exclamation points and other stuff now

[Jacobson, Shawn D]

I also read "Blindness" and was not really impressed.  My problem with the story, coming from a science fiction background, is the total lack of rationality.  People go blind and no one tries to figure out why.  People get their sight back and, again, no one tries to figure out what happened.  It's my whole gripe with magic realism, stuff happens and, like Mary Poppins, they never explain anything.  I suspect this is my cultural bias coming out.

I tried, recently, to read a "best of" collection (short stories from 2010) and couldn't figure out why anyone would think some of these stories were good.  I just didn't get them.  I'm either dumb or the emperor is naked.  But then, I've never been one who finds stories about character dysfunctionallity in conflict with everyday life to be very entertaining.  To each his own.

Anyway, good luck, good reading, and good writing.

Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2013 12:27 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Exclamation points and other stuff now

Donna,

I agree about Seramago. I did not have to read Blindness in the class I took; can't remember the name of the novel, but after the film came out, I did read Blindness, along with seeing the film, on my own. I wanted to be able to discuss the situation fully by knowing exactly what was in the content and base opinions for myself. He wrote a sequel titled Sighted, I believe, that wasn't any better. Despite the subject matter, I don't care for the guys writing at all, and I don't see how he's such a genius, but I've heard him mentioned over and over again as an example of good writing. Experimental and edgy, but good.

In my program, the showing vs. telling was stressed to the point of exhaustion. I think some classmates pointed this out so often because they had no real idea how to contribute. Nonetheless, all my instructors pushed this idea, and this is one thing the Workshop and English departments agreed upon.

A lot of classical literature relies on the tell as opposed to the show, and a lot of current best-selling material still follows suit.

Personally, I prefer more show as I feel too much telling becomes annoying. Too much time inside a character's head with all that inner dialogue can irritate me, or likewise too much interjection from the author, but I like to think I have a moderate view on this subject. In all things I like balance. After studying writing in a certain method, I attempt to now write in a way I equally prefer to read. Of course I may be biased to a point, but I can sift through what I was taught and what I like to find common ground.

This isn't to say I won't read or write something in a different way, and I always like experimentation. In general, it depends on the skill of the practitioner. In my experience, most writing relying on telling over the showing is not very good and it's poorly executed. There are those who use the telling to great skill though. It all depends on how well-crafted something is.

But as you say, that's why there's chocolate and vanilla, and it really comes down to preference in the end.

Bridgit
Message: 5
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:53:47 -0400
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Exclamation points
Message-ID: <9EB748AE716A4C20AE8707E87FF0B748 at OwnerHP>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Bridgit,
Saramago offends me without regard to his non-use of punctuation, though I'm pleased to hear that about him, as it allows me to think even less of him than I already do. If he had used any other minority group as a metaphor (I'm referring here to his novel Blindness), there would have been riots, and I suspect he would have had a worse time than Salman Rushty. But, since he chose to use blindness, he gets a Nobel Prize.

It's funny how tastes differ. I wasn't fully sighted, but did read print as a kid, and I have a visual memory of the ellipsis, which I find to be an unobtrusive and attractive mark. You had full vision and remember it as something quite the opposite. This is probably why the experts can't agree on anything. They are trying too hard to make rules to govern what the reader should like. Another example of something they tell young writers is to show not tell. Yet, if you read Joseph Heller's Catch 22 or anything by John Grisham, and lots of stuff in between, there is a lot of telling.

Well, as they say, that's why they make chocolate and vanilla. Donna 


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