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Monthly Archives: September 2013
Highly desirable?
There is a flood of dystopian novels compared to those that feature utopias because a society without problems has a tendency to be boring. However, if you start reading The Republic by Plato, and you may discover that his ideal … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Writer's resource
Tagged Plato, Socrates, Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, Utopia
1 Comment
Too bad to be true
Sir Thomas More, a scholar, lawyer and statesman published a novel in 1516 describing a perfect civilization. According to the book, this too real to be true society existed on an imaginary island that he dubbed Utopia. Of course, More … Continue reading
Glare of the limelight
While watching a recent bone crunching pro-football game on TV, I saw a player dive into a fracas and come up the fumbled football. He took off for his goal, running for the sidelines to avoid being pummel by a … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Writer's resource
Tagged baseball, Bernard Malamud, Football, George Plimpton, H.G. Bissinger, sports novels
1 Comment
The distant lands of home
In grade school I would skim the readers for something intriguing, passing over stories of everyday American life and fun science facts for narratives about other countries. As junior high student I soaked up Jules Verne adventures in distant places … Continue reading
Ten top reasons not to read classic literature
10 – There are so many choices of books to read now, why bother with less relevant writing from the past. There is also a lot more to learn in the fields of history, science and math so while we’re … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
Tagged Classic, Classic book, English Education, Grimm brothers, Literature, Reading, Satire
1 Comment
How to play the words well
Do a little bit of research on the internet and you will soon come up with vast lists of literary devices in addition to the ones that I have discussed. But it is too overwhelming to start employing them all. … Continue reading
Wilde words
Sometime in the eighties I noticed a shift in the focus of television sitcoms–the humorous situation was gradually being replaced by humorous banter. Witty retorts were more important than amusing events. In fact, often the events would be minimal. The … Continue reading
Posted in Literary devices, Literature, Writer's resource
Tagged epigram, euphemism, Humour, irony, literary device, litote, Oscar Wilde, Satire, wit
2 Comments
The merits of fictional characters
Having seen discussion boards in which people spend time arguing about the merits of fictional characters, I would assume that a number of readers prefer these imaginary people to real ones. Fictional characters may be braver, more beautiful, or have … Continue reading
More than what you see
The term ‘imagery’ brings to mind, of course, images–verbal pictures that allow us to peer into the world which an author has dreamed up. Imagery sometimes implies page after page of descriptive detail–in which case you might risk having the … Continue reading
Posted in Literary devices, Style and voice, Writer's resource
Tagged allusion, imagery, schizophrenia, Synesthesia, Writer, Writers Resources
2 Comments
Playing musical words
One of the quickest ways to make your writing voice stand out from the crowd is to master the use of literary devices. Some devices are just fancy names for specific types of diction and syntax. For example, anastrophe is … Continue reading
Posted in Literary devices, Style and voice, Writer's resource
Tagged alliteration, anastrophe, Assonance, cacophony, consonance, euphony, hyperbaton, Literary devices, Star Wars
2 Comments
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