I sat there staring at the book on my desk. It didn't move. It didn't even flinch. It just sat there glaring back like an angry dog waiting for me to take one step closer. "Francine Prose" dominated the white section of the cover like a neon sign in the dark declaring some midnight debauchery or all-you-can-eat buffet. How do I sit here and write about something that is meant to teach me how to write without sounding like an imbecile?
I picked up Style: an Anti-textbook and began to dive through the required reading for another class. Afterwards, I found myself diving through the quicksand of Cicero, Longinus, and Quintillian for their poignant discourse on rhetorical musings and expositions (big words for dense texts). Why do I do this to myself? Oh yeah, I want to make my writing sing! I rounded out this meal of academic discovery with a slice or two out of the Norton Book of Composition Studies. The essays, the chapters of the aforementioned books, and the selections from the long dead rhetoricians all began to coalesce into a unifying stew of understanding.
Writing, rather the writing process, has taken a new light in the synaptic demesne of my dementia. Style, narrative, dialogue from the Prose selections echoed the tired dead words of those crazy Roman rhetoricians who live vicariously through their Greek predecessors' fame. The ideas behind structuring sentences, choosing words, building "refined" dialogues, and simplifying messages echoed Lanham's Anti-textbook distinctly while still paying homage to Aristotle, Plato, and even Gorgias. One who knows how to speak effectively also learns how to write effectively, according to the dead Greeks and Romans.
I find it very enjoyable when the work of several classes mesh into a coherent functional understanding. These lessons on style, grace, form, and clarity will not only influence my own writing but also how I instruct others in composition.
This has been happening to me as well - different classes have begun to bleed into one another. It's nice because it shows that all writing, no matter what style, is connected in some demented way, shape, or form. The real challenge is to weed out the information that can help me be a better writer because if I try to do everything all at once I'll just end up with a well written, grammatically correct, steaming pile of crap!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I was a little wary of Prose's book when I started reading. I though, "How in the world does one person teach another person how to write?" I learned how to write from reading, and reading often, so I was relieved to see the author pull from other literary works to make her points. But still, when she talks about adjectives and nouns and commas, I grimace a little. I don't think I'll be reviewing my writing while going, "Adjective subject verb, adjective.. hm.. maybe this should be subject adjective verb, adjective.." For me, writing is so much more organic. I hear the words in my mind and edit accordingly, perfecting the sound and bounce of words as needed, with hardly any attention paid to parts of speech. But I can see her point in looking at why some phrases are so effective.. I just don't think it's something I'll utilize when editing my own works.
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