Ohhhh I like this one! How did you decide to use "i" adjectives? Having been trained to never use adjectives in a previous life, I'm going to leap forward and give it a go with something I've written in the last months, maybe try it with adjectives beginning with a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Your posts are reasons why I love Substack Uni.
Wow, Terry, this is absolutely fascinating - I learned so much!
My first thoughts were 'wow, I need to calm down my overegged use of adjectives', because your - let's call them 'extreme' - choices drew huge attention to my own adjectival urges. I found that such an interesting lesson for my own writing! 🤣
When I read the story for the second time I found myself thinking about how some of those surprise choices made me feel about what they were describing - as indeed you've said in your post here:
"I think describing a consultation room in a hospital as “indecisive” is, bizarrely, quite apt, or could be in some circumstances."
One of my favourite experiments in style, Terry - I can't wait for your Oulipo course in June!
"Borges was fascinated with the use of kennings, pairs that can lose their initial metaphoric link with the passage of time. Anyway, any translation is suspect; it's a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. Borgian poetry is also like a surgical knife, a perfectly crafted watch machinery. Thanks for your interesting insights."
Absolutely love this one, Terry. You capture some of the magic of certain writers here. I'm thinking largely of Murakami and also of Borges, too. I love when there is a juxtaposition of two words (often a descriptor and then a noun, as you have noted) that just creates something magical, or indescribable in the way it makes you feel. Obviously use in excess can be too much, but I do enjoy such things a lot. The subtle sense of the surreal that Murakami so often evokes is because of things like this, along with some playful use of metaphors and similes.
"people who isometrically decried" is such a fantastic line.
Most writers have no style. They sound like the newspaper. And I'm talking big name, best selling writers. So what's the fix? There is none. If we could teach people to be interesting, don't you think we would? : )
Gulp. Terry. This sounds so much like my own writing it is embarrassing. I need to take stock, my friend! That being said, the middle of the night often seems indecent to me as I roam about unable to sleep. Nausea can be quite insistent. I know a shockingly high number of uneducable people. (This will, of course, become evident during our November elections...) And in our hospital system here nurses always seem Itinerant -- with ten patients each to care for on any shift, it cannot be otherwise. I loved this entire clever thing, old man. Eye-opening.
Ohhhh I like this one! How did you decide to use "i" adjectives? Having been trained to never use adjectives in a previous life, I'm going to leap forward and give it a go with something I've written in the last months, maybe try it with adjectives beginning with a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Your posts are reasons why I love Substack Uni.
Wow, Terry, this is absolutely fascinating - I learned so much!
My first thoughts were 'wow, I need to calm down my overegged use of adjectives', because your - let's call them 'extreme' - choices drew huge attention to my own adjectival urges. I found that such an interesting lesson for my own writing! 🤣
When I read the story for the second time I found myself thinking about how some of those surprise choices made me feel about what they were describing - as indeed you've said in your post here:
"I think describing a consultation room in a hospital as “indecisive” is, bizarrely, quite apt, or could be in some circumstances."
One of my favourite experiments in style, Terry - I can't wait for your Oulipo course in June!
https://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/creative-writing-using-constraints
"Borges was fascinated with the use of kennings, pairs that can lose their initial metaphoric link with the passage of time. Anyway, any translation is suspect; it's a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. Borgian poetry is also like a surgical knife, a perfectly crafted watch machinery. Thanks for your interesting insights."
Absolutely love this one, Terry. You capture some of the magic of certain writers here. I'm thinking largely of Murakami and also of Borges, too. I love when there is a juxtaposition of two words (often a descriptor and then a noun, as you have noted) that just creates something magical, or indescribable in the way it makes you feel. Obviously use in excess can be too much, but I do enjoy such things a lot. The subtle sense of the surreal that Murakami so often evokes is because of things like this, along with some playful use of metaphors and similes.
"people who isometrically decried" is such a fantastic line.
I find this version to be poetic. Poets often string two words together that could potentially work but are questionable at the same time.
My favorites:
Impervious bed.
Isometrically decried.
Most writers have no style. They sound like the newspaper. And I'm talking big name, best selling writers. So what's the fix? There is none. If we could teach people to be interesting, don't you think we would? : )
Gulp. Terry. This sounds so much like my own writing it is embarrassing. I need to take stock, my friend! That being said, the middle of the night often seems indecent to me as I roam about unable to sleep. Nausea can be quite insistent. I know a shockingly high number of uneducable people. (This will, of course, become evident during our November elections...) And in our hospital system here nurses always seem Itinerant -- with ten patients each to care for on any shift, it cannot be otherwise. I loved this entire clever thing, old man. Eye-opening.
Iconic. 😏