Is this good writing? — csalisbury
Flannery O'Connor — Mayor of Simpleton
That's my feeling too, more or less. One of my favorites, Laszlo Krazsnahorkai, routinely writes sentences which stretch over ten pages.By itself I would say that the style is fine. But, admittedly, I also do not mind labored and awkward prose put to good effect — Moliere
That's a fair point, but I've been feeling unfriendly and analytical lately, and Means seems as good a person as any to take it out on.No, it's not. But any given sample of text prefaced by the question "Is this good writing?" is doomed to unfriendly and close analysis, which isn't the way we read fiction — BitterCrank
First the sea 'opens up' into the harbor. — csalisbury
Yes, he alters and word-drops a lot. And, again, I'm fine with that if, as Moliere says, it's done to good effect. I get the sense that a lot of this altering and word-dropping is merely a way for him to signal literariness. Like, 'declivity' is a very pretty word, imo, but nothing's done with its prettiness. It's just dropped their awkwardly, for no reason I can decipher. Why not just say 'slope'? (Though, I suppose 'declivity' has a kind of geological vibe to it. That would tie it in to the shale and limestone deposits. It suggests, perhaps, an impersonal landscape. Cormac McCarthy uses this kind of trick a lot, but it seems to work better when he does it. Not sure why. I'd have to think about it.)There is entirely too much traffic in altered parts of speech; "vise" is not a verb. Is there something wrong with "pressed", "squeezed", "caught", "trapped", "locked" or whatever it was that was happening between his knees?
I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've never read O'Connor — csalisbury
The paragraph establishes a feeling of sadness and nostalgia in me, and captures a multi-faceted experience too from the history of a place to the feeling of wind on someone's face. — Moliere
FWIW here's what happens next: dude takes off his shoes ("He extended his legs and began to take his shoes off, edging the heel with the back of the other shoe") steps on a broken bottle ("as jagged as the French Alps, the round base of the bottle forming a perfect support for the protrusion, the only piece of glass for yards, seated neatly against the rail plate") thinks about his dead wife ("her car simmering steam and smoke upside down in the Saw Mill River Parkway, twisted wreckage betrayed by the battered guardrail) and then gets beat up by a bunch of poor people while he imagines the performance of Brahm's Symphony no. 3 he could be at ("the third movement of which he was particular fond, Poco Allegretto, so rounded and soft at the beginning it would, if he had gone, remind him of the shoulders of his wife, of a moment twenty years ago making love in a small room on Nantucket") — csalisbury
Why not just say 'slope'? (Though, I suppose 'declivity' has a kind of geological vibe to it. That would tie it in to the shale and limestone deposits. It suggests, perhaps, an impersonal landscape. Cormac McCarthy uses this kind of trick a lot, but it seems to work better when he does it. Not sure why. I'd have to think about it.) — csalisbury
Reviewers, and MOS, think Means is similar to Flannery O'Connor. — Bitter Crank
This physically hurts... — TGW
I think they're both nice, in their own ways. I'd say 'Slope' is more deep-yielding.I think 'slope' is definitely more beautiful phonetically -- one syllable, a long vowel, no flaps or schwas.
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