Experiments in Style: the naming of parts
... of speech, that is
One of the things I’ve been trying out is reworking a piece of text into a completely different style. A full exposition and explanation are given here:
In today’s experiment I’d like to tell the story in the original style, but with the different parts of speech colour-coded. First, though, here is the original text on which these experiments or transformations are based:
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The original (template) text
In the middle of the night, I woke up (if you can call being semi-conscious being awake), walked purposefully towards the door to go to the bathroom — and almost knocked myself out.
The reason was that in the twin states of entire darkness and semi-somnambulance I was facing in a different direction from the one I thought I was facing. As a result, instead of walking through the door, I tried to walk through the wall.
The next few days brought nausea and headaches. After much prevarication I went to Accident and Emergency, where I waited petrified among people for whom “social distancing” means not quite touching you, and who wore their masks as a chin-warmer.
An hour and a half later I emerged into the twilight, secure in the knowledge that I had nothing more serious than mild concussion. I failed to do much writing, but I was pleased to have read a further 17% of my book.
The story with the parts of speech colour-coded
Here’s something to think about. Does having the different kinds of words enhance the experience or detract from it?
On Friday I will be explaining how I created this version. That will be a paid subscribers’ post, but I’ll include a 7 day free trial option.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s version.
For more experiments, please see the index. Paid subscribers also get behind the scenes information about some of these experiments.
First off, I loved the clickbait title! 🤣
This post was so interesting. I found I could follow the story - kind of - by focusing just on the verbs in green, although it surprised me that you hadn't highlighted 'up' and 'out' - as in 'woke up' and 'knocked out' - hmmm, I'm thinking about that.
Then I went down a layer and concentrated on the words in grey, which gave me more of a sense of the narrative.
My favourite layer of reading, though, was of the lovely adjectives in orange, which gave me a much greater sense of what the story was about even if I couldn't follow it entirely.
A really, really interesting Experiment in style, Terry - thank you so much for a Sunday reading highlight!
(There's a typo in there... you've put 'purposely' instead of 'purposefully'. Just sayin'.)
😊
Wow, that was most off-putting! I had to skip reading pass the first line the first time, then went back to it so I could fully experience the discomfort...it made for a fractured experience, as my brain was frustrated not to be able to just enjoy reading as well as identifying each colour group. For novelty of feeling out of a very familiar text, I'd say that's a success!