Ms. Plath

I'm not much of a Sylvia Plath enthusiast. Of course I can't particularly say I'd like to know anyone who openly describes themselves as a 'Sylvia Plath enthusiast' (ie lonely feminist). Although I think "The Bell Jar's" appeal resides in the inextricable connection of her character's voice and the suicide of Ms. Plath herself. Readers almost want to stare into the text and glimpse the beyond the pale. At least this is how I felt when I read it. One can't help but associate the words of the character with the words of Plath, and ponder the depth of the difference. Her language is haunting, however I'm not entirely convinced that the harrowing quality of the text transpires from Plath's exceptional literary skill or the presumptions of the readers who project the visage of the dead author onto her character.

The common complaint I've heard filed against Plath's poetic prose throughout "The Bell Jar," is that it is in fact too poetic, with a metaphor per paragraph rate bordering on flowery.

"I dropped the compact into my pocketbook and stared out of the train window. Like a colossal junkyard, the swamps and back lots of Connecticut flashed past, one broken-down fragment bearing no relation to another." Does the flashing of swamps and backyards really look like a 'colossal junkyard?' I think this may be an exaggeration, or at least an in-concise use of language.

Advocates, fans, and dare I say enthusiasts of Plath's novel would probably claim that the maudlin metaphors express the immaturity of the young narrator, and do not directly reflect Plath's own poetic voice. Instead a more diligent critic would consider what the narrator's consistent use of description states about her condition. What are the qualities of her metaphorical dialogue that correlate to theme and imagery? From these elements, what can we derive about the novels inconclusive conclusion? What is the fate of our narrator?

Joan Didion's 'Good to All That,' has the potency to make me laugh and simultaneously cry. She understands the dichotomy between tragedy and comedy; the dark side of irony, and she conveys it in her work. She expresses this sense of thematic duality from the very first line, "It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends."

The central dichotomy that resonates throughout her work, is the relation of the present to her past. Her voice maintains a sense of the present, in which she realizes the 'morals' of her story and reflects nostalgically, but she concurrently relates them to a quality of almost romantic enthusiasm that encompasses the emotions of her innocent new to New York self.

Dh Lawrence

Throughout "The Rocking Horse Winner" DH Lawrence evokes suspense by describing the internal anxieties of characters who primarily concern themselves with trivial, external problems. The very image of the rocking horse on which the young Paul rides to his death signifies a material idol out of which he hopes to extract an immaterial quality-luck.

Dark Irony and Lawrence's characteristic satire of the Britain's frivolous upper-middle class resonate throughout the story's narrative tone. "There was a young woman who was beautiful," Lawrence begins in a voice suited for a fairy tale, developing an incongruously rhythmic beat as he expounds upon her destitution. "She married for love, and the love turned to dust. She had bonny Children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them." Any use of the word 'bonny' in a narrative written after the 19th century forfeits all claim to solemnity even if the sentence refers to the indifference of a Mother; and the maudlin description of 'love turned to dust' correlates perfectly with, 'yet she felt they had been thrust.'

Contrasting tone with context evokes irony.

The most vivid quality of Lawrence narration resides in his capacity to externalize the internal anxieties of his characters through sound. Particularly the hushed whispering of house that expresses the character's increasing, unspoken consciousness of their debt. Without extensive use of onomatopoei, Lawrence illustrates the sounds of the story by describing the characters' reactions to them, and by this effect intensifies the anticipation of the readers.

"There was a strange, heavy and yet not loud noise. Her heart stood still." In this passage near the tragic conclusion, with only a few paragraphs left, we the readers anticipate that Paul's mother is about to discover the winning rocking horse. But the suspense of not knowing, but only suspecting and awaiting confirmation maintains a graphic presence as we visualize both Paul's Mother and the frantic swaying of the rocker beyond the doorway. "It was a soundless noise, yet rushing and powerful. Something huge, in violent, hushed motion. What was it? What in God's name was it?" We the readers know exactly what 'it' is."She ought to know. She felt that she knew the noise." She does not, but we do. "Yet she could not place it."

By the time Paul's Mother discovers the source of the noise, we the readers have supplemented her character for ourselves and our own expectations. We immediately rejoice upon the confirmation that our suspicions were indeed correct, the sound is coming from Paul's rocking chair, but then Lawrence debunks our pride. The boy has ridden himself into a delirium. The horse, the title of the story, the subject of our suspicion is an irrelevant object before the emotional turmoil of the child. And the true discovery is not his rocker but his collapse.

Orwell

In his essay "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell vehemently bemoans the pompous dialogues of authors who, like so many contemporary critics struggling to string concept through the needles eye, project their ideas through an opaque and ambiguous language.

Not quite.

In his essay, Orwell emphasizes the significance of simplicity in language and the clarity of images that a simplified dialogue will produce. He criticizes phraseology, the stringing together of phrases that conveys the impression of clarity through common cliches (such as 'stringing together of'). And finally Orwell justifies his examination of language, and the importance of reconciling 'the debasement' of the English language, by relating the ambiguity of poor writing to its common place in politics; where the publics acceptance of meaningless cliche may empower global initiatives.

His central persuasive technique is this emphasis on the relation of language to the public's interpretation of political jargon. While the essay primarily concerns the debasement of the English language, Orwell titles his essay 'Politics and the English Language.' Although he does not begin focusing on the political relevance of language until the eighth of twelve pages. His analysis of political language persuades the common reader of his argument's real world relevance. And within the title, by submitting the subject 'English Language' to the catalyst 'Politics,' Orwell insures that his article will receive the attention of common readers as well as literary critics.

Digression: A college essayist cannot read Orwell's article without feeling slightly exposed. I confess that I have written many a mindless phrase. What interests me most about Orwell's article is that he offers a solution to the debasement of English. Clarity and originality of imagery, simplicity of syntax, and simply thinking before writing; however, I think my own discontent derives from the professorial praise that pretentious writing achieves. A good professor sees through the bullshit, but often enough professorial minds maintain such flowery conceptions of themselves that they giggle with glee when they catch their own reflections in the embellished lines of a veritable moron.

Grace

James Joyce paints a portrait of the underlying religious tensions that characterize the lives of Dubliners. Each of the central characters throughout 'Grace' present a different approach to Catholicism or Judeo-Christian religions. While each of them professes to  Catholic convictions, none of them maintain the same personal doctrine. Within each character is an interpretation that correlates to the ideals with which they approach the central conflict-IE, Tom Kernan's 'fall' from grace. 

Sentence Types: 

'Two Gentlemen who were in the lavatory at the time tried to lift him up: but he was quite helpless" - A general statement with an explanatory statement 

Joyce opens his passage with this line which thrust the reader into the action of the story, but declines to explain the setting or circumstance. Instead, the offhanded description gives the impression that these events are common pub occurrences.

"The arc of his social rise intersected the arc of his friend's decline, but Mr. Kernan's decline was mitigated by the fact that certain of those friends who had known him at his highest point of success still esteemed him as a character."-Same word repeated in a parallel structure

This may be my favorite description throughout the story. It explains the relationship of Kernan and Mr. Power, using a parallel structure to emphasize the sense of congruity between the directions of their lives. And perhaps offer some insight into Mr. Power's interest in Kernan's salvation. 

"There they were at it, all the cardinals and bishops and archbishops from all the ends of the earth and these two fighting dog and devil until at last the Pope himself stood up and declared infallibility a dogma of the Church ex cathedra." -A series of internal appositives

Well not quite, in the series 'cardinals and bishops and archbishops' each does not supplement the other, but Joyce's hypotactic listing implies the common order between them. 

"The inference was allowed." -Short statement for relief

This line occurs near the conclusion of the conversation about papal history. After a long series of parallel structures with Latin phrases, Joyce allows the reader to take a breath and consider the symbolic significance of this religious dialogue. Rather than continuing to absorb readers with the trivial language of church history, the line punctuates the previous paragraphs and emphasizes their deeper relevance to the plot. 

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov's sometimes verbose language manages to float off the tongue, much like the very name Lolita. Nabokov's running style evokes the fervent energy of careless passion, but it seems somehow maturely developed: his language is precise, which shows readers that although his character seems consumed with this passion, he never loses focus.
"All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should add"
In this description of a boyhood infatuation, Nabokov maintains a distinct linguitic rhythm throughout the sentence, despite that the narrator is obviously lost in his thoughts and stumbling to find the right word. The stumbling voice of the narrator when he says 'madly,' clumsily,' shamelessly,' agonizingly,' and conclusively 'hoplessly,' expresses the indecisively energetic tone of his voice as he struggles to contain his passion within a single clause. While the enaphoric quality of the language signifies the presence of a great writer maintaining rhetorical control, without which the narrator's cumulative energy may sweep away the readers as it has himself.
Overall, I would say that Nabokov exemplifies Lanham's thesis that periodic and running sentences may often flow together. The voice of his narrator resounds through the cumulative and running prose, in a language consisting mostly of verbose adjetives that agrandise his subject. Paradoxically however, Nabokov's poetic rythm and use of parallelism conveys a well calculated sense of tone.

The Mystery of Renewal

Throughout his inauguration speech, Bill Clinton oscillates between a nearly decorative language, in which he idealizes the mystic qualities of change, and a more directly objective call to national initiative. Hypotaxis characterizes the structure of his speech, in which he very early on establishes the goals and ideals he intends to address.
A syntactic rhythm emphasizes the 'imagery' with which Clinton relates his central themes. The most central of these themes being the idea of 'renewal.' " Today we celebrate the mystery of American renewal," Clinton opens. "This ceremony is held in the depth of winter. But, by the words we speak and the faces we show the world, we force the spring. A spring reborn in the world's oldest democracy, that brings forth the vision and courage to reinvent America."
'Renewal,' 'Reborn,' 'Reinvent,' without having to directly repeat himself, Clinton's words evoke a sense of rhyme, and ultimately convey a common definition, which correlates to his central theme. 

Specifically in the sentence: "A spring reborn in the world's oldest democracy, that brings forth the vision and courage to reinvent America." Essentially his statement says, "A spring in America that reinvents America." However, Clinton's grandiose modification of this idea, which he achieves through the use of extended imagery, and the nearly poetic rhythm of his syntax reiterates his thematic idealism. The poetic punch of his prose derives from his use of periodic sentences. In which the sentence conclusion often seems like a preconceived beat. Although this emphatically poetic style may seem exhausted or embellished to readers, one must remember that Clinton's words were primarily written to be heard. 

The Silver Dish

 "What do you do about death-in this case, the death of an old father?" Sam Bellow immediately establishes the questions he will address through and throughout his short story, "The Silver Dish." These themes are namely, death and specifically, the death of an aging father. However, his precise thematic introduction debunks the readers' inherent expectations of a subtle narrative approach. Readers expect to decipher the narrative's central question after sorting through descriptions of settings, characters, and the gradual development of a conflict. Bellow disenchants these reader expectations by opening his narrative with a question posed directly to the readers. He establishes the story's central conflict  before introducing any of the traditional elements of narrative: character, setting, etc. 

"If you're a modern person," bellow continues,"sixty years of age, and a man who's been around like Woody Selbst, what do you do?" While he introduces the central character Woody, he still declines to offer any explanation of what he means by 'modern person' and what this detail indicates about Woody's character. The focus of the narrative still seems directed at the readers, the 'you' in his question. 

"Take this matter of mourning, and take it against a contemporary background. How, against a contemporary background, do you mourn an octogenarian father, nearly blind, his heart enlarged, his lungs filling with fluid, who creeps, stumbles, gives off the odors, the moldiness or gassiness of old men. I mean! As Woody put it, be realistic. "

Now at last, Bellow has explained how the character Woody relates to the narratives central question, but he does so with the introduction of even more new ideas and questions for the reader to ponder:  'what is the condition of Woody's father?' 'Why does he emphasize the contemporary background?' 

"Think what times these are. The papers daily give it to you—the Lufthansa pilot in Aden is described by the hostages on his knees, begging the Palestinian terrorists not to execute him, but they shoot him through the head. Later they themselves are killed. And still others shoot others, or shoot themselves. That’s what you read in the press, see on the tube, mention at dinner. We know now what goes daily through the whole of the human community, like a global death-peristalsis."

Bellow now establishes the context of the narrative's central question, but he does so at the conclusion of the opening paragraph. His style is characterized by an inversion of the narrative structure. His opening paragraphs ends where the reader would expect it to begin, with the dramatic establishment of a setting. Bellow's first sentence epitomizes this inversion of the narrative structure. "What do you do about death-in this case, the death of an old father?" Bellow does not construct his narrative as a medium for the question 'what do you do about death?' Instead, the story comes as humanizing afterthought to the grandiose theme of death. Hypotaxis works ironically in this sentence by placing the question of 'what do you do about death,' before the structurally essential detail, 'the death of an old father.'

'Miss Piggy Would Have Sent the Wrong Message,'

'Miss Piggy Would Have Sent the Wrong Message'

Dana Milbank

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

For my response to Lanham's chapter on "Noun and Verb Styles," I'm using an article from the Washington Post which covers the Elmo's official appointment as the spokesman for the prevention of H1N1 flu. An ironic tone persists throughout the entire article, written by Dana Milbank, whose voice resonates with a sense of contrast. As she details the serious subject of swine flu with a static syntax, she transitions into a verbal vocabulary with a  inclusion of quotations from Elmo.

Noun 

"After months of preparation and umpteen billions of dollars, the federal government came out Tuesday with its swine flu response."  

A static quality characterizes the article's introductory sentence. Nouns dominate structure of this sentence. If not for the title of the article and the cute, furry photo along its border, a reader might presume the ensuing paragraph will maintain a bureaucratic tone. However the next paragraph, which immediately opens with an exclamatory remark from Elmo, introduces a new tone entirely. Milbank adopts a dominantly verbal style to integrate these quotations with the article. This transition expresses the writer's consciousness of the article's ironic tone. 

"Come on! Wash your hands with Elmo! Wash, wash, wash!" the Muppet from Sesame Street sings in a public service announcement released Tuesday by the Obama administration. "Sneeze into your arm with Elmo," the character adds. "Ah-choo!"