[stylist] Exclamation points and other stuff now

Thu May 2 18:05:11 UTC 2013

Believe me, it isn't worth your time, and I would never recommend the filthy
rag to anyone. BTW, the director of the movie Fernandez had some rather
nasty things to say about the NFB. I spent too much time commenting on
articles about this.
Donna
Donna 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of justin
williams
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2013 10:12 AM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Exclamation points and other stuff now

I've never read blindness, and nor do I want too.  

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jacobson,
Shawn D
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2013 9:37 AM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] Exclamation points and other stuff now

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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