{"id":6904,"date":"2007-08-24T08:28:55","date_gmt":"2007-08-24T12:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6904"},"modified":"2022-10-13T10:05:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T14:05:48","slug":"a-me-me-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6904","title":{"rendered":"Answering A Meme"},"content":{"rendered":"

from the wonderful and superfast Annie<\/a><\/p>\n

List some of your favorite words:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elixir
\nTwilight
\nEvensong
\nNumbnuts
\nPaleontology<\/p>\n

What\u00e2\u0080\u0099s your favorite maxim or proverb?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love that line from Braveheart:<\/p>\n

“In order to find his equal, an Irishman is forced<\/em> to talk to God.”<\/p>\n

I kid, I kid. Not really – but I’ll list another one:<\/p>\n

Not sure if this counts as a proverb – but I would say the quote is one of the guiding lights of my life so I will list it:<\/p>\n

“Make voyages! — Attempt them! … there’s nothing else.”<\/p>\n

— Tennessee Williams, Camino Real<\/i><\/p>\n

What\u00e2\u0080\u0099s your favorite quotation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

How far that little candle throws his beams!
\nSo shines a good deed in a naughty world.<\/p>\n

— Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u00e2\u0080\u0099s your favorite first line of a novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh this is hard. There are so many.<\/p>\n

But I think I’ll go with:<\/p>\n

It was love at first sight. — Catch 22<\/i>, by Joseph Heller<\/p>\n

I also have a real fondness for:<\/p>\n

“Where’s Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.
\n— Charlotte’s Web<\/i>, by EB White<\/p>\n

Give an example of a piece of description that\u00e2\u0080\u0099s really pleased you in your reading lately:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least; but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes, without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, without knowing how or why; whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit. The little plaintiff or defendant, who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled, has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world. Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers; a long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out; the legion of bills in the suit have been transformed into mere bills of mortality; there are not three Jarndyces left upon the earth perhaps, since old Tom Jarndyce in despair blew his brains out at a coffee-house in Chancery Lane; but Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the Court, perenially hopeless.<\/p>\n

Jarndyce and Jarndyce has passed into a joke. That is the only good that has ever come of it. It has been death to many, but it is a joke in the profession. Every master in Chancery has had a reference out of it. Every Chancellor was “in it”, for somebody or other, when he was counsel at the bar. Good things have been said about it by blue-nosed, bulbous-shoed old benchers, in select port-wine committee after dinner in hall. Articled clerks have been in the habit of fleshing their legal wit upon it. The last Lord Chancellor handled it neatly, when, correcting Mr. Blowers the eminent silk gown who said that such a thing might happen when the sky rained potatoes, he observed, “or when we get through Jarndyce and Jarndyce, Mr. Blowers;” — a pleasantry that particularly tickled the maces, bags, and purses.<\/p>\n

— Bleak House<\/i>, by Charles Dickens<\/p>\n

Which five writers do you particularly admire for their use of language?<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Joyce
\nAnnie Proulx
\nJoseph Heller
\nAS Byatt
\nMichael Chabon
\nHerman Melville (oops, that’s 6 – but Melville must be on the list)<\/p>\n

And are there writers whose style you really dislike?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, Nicholas Sparks, although I hesitate to say that he even has a “style”. He disgusts me.<\/p>\n

Other than that …<\/p>\n

I don’t like simple writing that just stays on the surface. I don’t like obvious writing. People with fundamentalist views in general, are awful writers because they either write to convince – or they just preach to their own choir – and this does not make for interesting writing, in the slightest. (I’m not just talking about religious fundamentalists. I use that term to mean: black and white certainty of being right.) Yawn. I prefer mystery and depth. I don’t like writers who start with a huge generalization that you MUST accept before you read on. I don’t like lazy writers who start with assumptions. Actually, those people aren’t lazy writers, really. They’re lazy THINKERS. I don’t like writers who take sit-coms as their main inspiration for dialogue. I like writers who are bold – even if they fail on occasion. I don’t mind if you over-write (Stephen King) … if you tell me a damn good story (Stephen King). I can’t stand condescending writing. I also like writing that is SIMPLE. I guess that might seem like a contradiction, but you know – do I contradict myself? very well, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes. Even James Joyce said, “With me, the thought is always simple.” And yes. That is true true true. I don’t like purposefully obscure writing, although I do love to be challenged. But something that is opaque because perhaps the opacity will hide the fact that there ain’t no there there?? Yuk.<\/p>\n

What\u00e2\u0080\u0099s the key to really fine writing, in your opinion?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s definitely some truth to the “show don’t tell” rule in my opinion, although I think that’s a “rule” that is mainly for beginning English 101 writers. I love writers who SHOW me stuff. Annie Proulx is marvelous at that – her At Close Range<\/i> collection is spectacular in this regard. I literally lost my sense of time and space and self reading that book. (Example here<\/a>) I was on the plains, I could feel the frost, hear the crunch of dry grass, feel the wind … Her descriptive passages are NEVER too much. I’m never like: Okay, okay, I get it. She finds JUST the right words … and stops when she should. Unbelievable.<\/p>\n

And I suppose this is just a matter of taste – but to me, fine writing is something that transports me. I forget I’m reading – and I go into the story. But what in the writing actually does that? I’m not sure – it’s different for different books.<\/p>\n

Like, I would put something like Good Night Moon<\/i> in this category – even though it’s a kids book and it only has 20 words in it. I find that book transportive, and perfectly so. I lose myself.<\/p>\n

And I would also put most of Stephen King’s books into this category.<\/p>\n

All the good writers have that ability.<\/p>\n

John Irving, George Eliot, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Dostoevsky, Dickens, Ian McEwan, Charlotte Bronte, etc. etc.<\/p>\n

I lose myself in their books. It’s like diving into a pool.<\/p>\n

There’s something CONFIDENT in their prose. They know how to lead me by the hand into their story. They are not ambivalent, they do not overstay their welcome, they TRUST me to fill in the blanks – they don’t talk down to me, or over-describe, or make sure I “get it”. They are confident storytellers, and their prose reflects that. It’s why I look forward to their books.<\/p>\n

\nAnd here’s Dan’s answers<\/a><\/p>\n

And here are Stefanie’s answers<\/a>. I like “effervescent” too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the wonderful and superfast Annie List some of your favorite words: Elixir Twilight Evensong Numbnuts Paleontology What\u00e2\u0080\u0099s your favorite maxim or proverb? I love that line from Braveheart: “In order to find his equal, an Irishman is forced to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6904"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181047,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions\/181047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}