January 25, 2005
where seldom is heard
a discouraging word?
Yes. A discouraging word.
I went back and was reading a project I'd spent many, many hours on. I'd decided to put the project away as it was annoying me. Bad bad.
So I picked it up today and began to read what I'd written for my project.
It's not good. Not good at all.
I suppose there are bits that are redeeming, but in general, I find the prose lackluster.
Perhaps what I need is to include some fancier words. ChillyLily used the word trope today: a word or expression used in a figurative sense. Ain't she fancy? Then I thought of the word vet. Sure it means animal doctor, but it also means evaluate. To subject to expert appraisal or correction, that's what it means. The Webster's Real-Time words thing just blipped by with mercurial, combustible, and complacent. Maybe I should just do that all the time--take the words and make a plot. It surely is fun.
But I got an email from Noam Sequitur. He suggested that Spring's writing is reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway's. He suggested an uncanny similarity. Darling Noam sent examples of both writings.
"I jumped behind the bar on the left side and could see looking over the
edge. The car was stopped and there were two fellows crouched down by
it. One had a Thompson gun and the other had a sawed-off automatic
shotgun. The one with the Thompson gun was a nigger. The other had a
chauffeur's white duster on."
- To Have and Have Not, Ernest Hemingway 1937
"I found cookies, too. I hid one in the grass. I cannot ever find things
I hide. I went for a run. I ran fast. You should see me run. I ran back
and forgot I had a cookie."
- oh! what a busy day!, Spring 2004
Perhaps Spring's plot is less compelling and her language less coarse, but generally speaking, I do believe Noam is right.
I have a black and white Hemingway in the house.
