Comments on: Not Too Many Details, Please

By: CrazyDreamer

CrazyDreamer — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 04:32:03 +0000

It will perhaps explain (and display) my literary nerdiness and love of fantasy if I note that my mother read me The Lord of the Rings before I was old enough to read.

She read me The Hobbit first, of course.

By: Eli James

Eli James — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:49:00 +0000

Uh-oh. Tolstoy.

Tolstoy. How could they do this to him?!

By: Gloria Hildebrandt

Gloria Hildebrandt — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:38:53 +0000

Of interest: I see in today’s (May 16) http://www.writerunboxed.com that Orion Books is apparently “slimming down some of the world’s greatest novels.” Ouch.

By: Eli James

Eli James — Wed, 16 May 2007 11:48:24 +0000

Yes, you’re absolutely right (to my chargrin). When I first read Lord Of The Rings (aged 15) I sped through, getting the gist of the story and not much else.

Then I reread it last month … and discovered pools of detail and nuances of speech that change as the setting does. The culture, the songs. The history lessons that characters are prone to let spill, because it is the way of the land.

I found it beautiful.

What’s my next reread? Pride and Prejudice. I did no justice to that, skipping entire parts just to find out what happens between Lizzie and Mr Darcy.

By: Gloria Hildebrandt

Gloria Hildebrandt — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:44:56 +0000

These are interesting comments. I think they reveal how we are evolving as a culture. We have become so used to action, short takes, sound bites, bits and bobs, that we want everything to happen sooner, now, yesterday. The old wonderful classic works of literature are filled with great amounts of detail that draw patient, attentive readers deeply into the story. I think especially men, and may I suggest YOUNG men, want things fast, fast, fast. There are different kinds of readers and writing that is done to satisfy them. I also believe that the medium of the computer, and its limited screen, suits short snappy writing best. No one curls up for a long lovely afternoon of reading a blook online.

By: Eli James

Eli James — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:48:58 +0000

Ahh. That would be interesting. Understated prose always brings to mind … Hemingway.

And I’m still finding the ultimate blook. The emphasis being on the still.

*sighs*

By: ming

ming — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:34:11 +0000

i’ve always had a sense that prose would evole into sharper shorter formats.. finding your blog has given me a keen intrest on blooks…now.. where are the good ones.

i’ve read in ‘exedous’, the novel not bible story…really clear and shord discriptions… no wasted words…

like 4 sentences compressed into one full haiku of a sentence…

i’ll be back with atleas an example..