Fragments From Floyd

All God's Chillen Gotta Style

Can't do much browsing or jabbering this morning. We have to scurry off, umbrellas and rain slickers in hand, to the Hurricane Charlie Celebration of Liquid Sunshine formerly known as FloydFest 2004. Actually (knock on wood) we are at the very edge of Chuck's winds and wet, and may get by with nothing more than a shower or two.

This morning, I've decided on 7 pieces from which I will read 3 or 4 in my 15 minutes at the mic at 11:15. Son Nate has the same amount of minutes at 12:15. We'll carry our reading pages in a gallon ziplock bag, just in case.

Meanwhile, and without the least attempt at a seameless segue--some of you might be interested in this Chronicles discussion of "style" and "voice" that pits the Strunk and White viewpoint against the Natalie Goldberg spin on the words, as seen in the following paragraph:

The Strunk-and-White people privilege readers, viewing them as delicate invalids, likely to scurry off to their bedchambers when faced with any sentence diverging in the slightest from the plain style. (Using another metaphor, White wrote that his old teacher Strunk "felt that the reader was in serious trouble most of the time, a man floundering in a swamp, and that it was the duty of anyone attempting to write English to drain this swamp quickly and get his man on dry ground, or at least throw him a rope.") At the other extreme, the Goldberg group coddles the writer the way an overindulgent parent would a sensitive child: Are you sure you've shared everything that's on your mind or in your heart?

The author concludes with this description of "style":

It emerges when writers are comfortable and proficient with their tools. Style is expressed unconsciously, but shaped consciously, in revision. It is a whispering, not a shouting voice; whether readers discern it depends on their familiarity with the writer and their own skill as readers. The writer himself or herself is aware of it; identifying, developing, and shaping it is one of the main pleasures of the craft.

Posted by fred1st at August 14, 2004 06:28 AM | TrackBack