{"id":10855,"date":"2016-02-10T06:28:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T11:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hilbertthm90.wordpress.com\/?p=3188"},"modified":"2022-06-21T12:31:06","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T17:31:06","slug":"examining-pros-prose-part-7-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amindformadness.com\/2016\/02\/examining-pros-prose-part-7-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining Ethan Canin’s Prose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Today we’ll examine something I think Ethan Canin does well: description. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Description is one of those things that is very hard to get right. I think this is because it is difficult to notice when someone has done a good job. Bad description jumps out; good description goes unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everyone notices an overwrought passage that contains strange similes and metaphors and goes on forever trying to paint as explicit a picture as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story breaks to set the scene. This is a case of show-don’t-tell-itis. The reader ends up skimming to find the story and gets nothing out of all the work that went into the description. Or the reader that suffers through it gets bored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For this reason, I’ll make the first rule of description: show as little as possible without sacrificing useful information. This is counter to what most of us have been taught, but one carefully chosen detail can tell the reader more than a whole page of useless ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ed wore Reebok’s to the party. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Does that detail tell us anything? Probably not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tina noticed Ed’s Saucony Kilkenny XC5 minimal running flats as soon as he entered the party. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Does that tell us something? Yes! Ed is a runner. Tina knows enough about running shoes to identify these. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We’re getting somewhere now. This example isn’t great, because most people won’t be able to visualize the shoe. But you should see the point that describing because you feel you need to or that it makes the scene “more realistic” is not a noble goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Describe with purpose.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multipurpose Details<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This brings us to the second rule: make the details serve more than one purpose. Often, people think of description as the way to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it can serve many other purposes in addition to this and often multipurpose description keeps the story moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s an example. Take something simple like describing snow (I’m in the middle of NE Snowpocalypse 2016). Someone who has “show, don’t tell” ingrained in them might try to give every painstaking detail as accurately as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this isn’t non-fiction; it’s literature. The same exact thing can be described in multiple ways, giving different moods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe the character is falling in love, so she sees the beauty in it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sun hit the ice crystal dangling from the pine, breaking the light into a dozen shimmering rays. The gentle snowflakes danced among the light. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
As you see, you can use words like “shimmering,” “gentle,” “dance,” “light,” “sun,” etc to emphasize the joy of the character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same exact scene could be described by an angry character. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harsh light glared off the frozen surfaces. The snow plunged relentlessly and suffocated everything like an infinite, oppressive mask. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Okay, so maybe that got a little depressive or melodramatic with words like “harsh,” “glare,” “plunge,” “suffocate,” “oppressive,” etc. But I merely wanted to illustrate a point. There isn’t one objectively accurate way to describe anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now you see why good description is hard to spot. You don’t have alternate versions to compare it to, so you’ll read right over it and not realize the carefully chosen details. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The details will evoke the right feeling, but you didn’t read a version that didn’t evoke those feelings to see how well it was done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ethan Canin Prose Style<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Obviously, this can be taken too far, and you’ll start to produce abstract, experimental prose poetry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n