lyrical lumps
Mar. 7th, 2011 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliLyricism in style can be fun, interesting, beautiful -- but it can also interfere with getting on with the story and distract from what it's about.
So you just save it for special moments, right?
Err -- no. A consistent overwrought story may be better than a piece in ho-hum prose with lyrical passages embedded in it like diamonds in a mud puddle, or even good, transparent prose studded with such passages. At least the story lets you get into the swing of it, after which it is no longer as noticeable -- although getting into it may be a problem, it doesn't jolt you now and again but sweeps you along in a world of its own.
Though a story doesn't have to stay all the same style throughout -- many can't stand to do so -- a more gracious transition is necessary. Fortunately a transparent style can segued gracefully into a lyrical one with a pick up of the intensity of the language and images, and then gracefully descend to a more straightforward style again. It takes some skill to do it, but immensely lyrical passages can be embedded in stories that need a simpler style to pull off the rest of them.
So you just save it for special moments, right?
Err -- no. A consistent overwrought story may be better than a piece in ho-hum prose with lyrical passages embedded in it like diamonds in a mud puddle, or even good, transparent prose studded with such passages. At least the story lets you get into the swing of it, after which it is no longer as noticeable -- although getting into it may be a problem, it doesn't jolt you now and again but sweeps you along in a world of its own.
Though a story doesn't have to stay all the same style throughout -- many can't stand to do so -- a more gracious transition is necessary. Fortunately a transparent style can segued gracefully into a lyrical one with a pick up of the intensity of the language and images, and then gracefully descend to a more straightforward style again. It takes some skill to do it, but immensely lyrical passages can be embedded in stories that need a simpler style to pull off the rest of them.