Okay, So I'm a Year Behind. It's Still Worth Giving to Your Favorite Reader..."You cannot taste a work of prose. It has no color and it makes no sound. Its shape is without significance. When people talk about writing, though, they often use adjectives borrowed from activities whose products make a more direct appeal to the senses--painting, sculpture, music, cuisine. People say, 'the writing is colorful' or 'pungent' or 'shapeless' or 'lyrical,' and no one asks them where, exactly, they perceive those qualities. Discussions of tone and texture are carried on in the complete ontological absence of such things...writing is a verbal artifict that, as it is being decoded, stimulates sensations that are unique to writing. But that, for some reason, often have to be described in terms of nonverbal experiences."
--from Louis Menand's introduction to The Best American Essays of 2004
4 Comments:
I see you posted Menand's Intro~ which indicates that writings can be de-CODED! We have DNA and RNA CODES in us. Who PUT them there? We have other CODES that switch things ON and OFF in our bodies too! You CAN READ CODES RIGHT OUT OF YOUR OWN BIBLE on destinies. Visit: http://quadcode.blogspot.com ; to see the "Chosen"Code and "Color" Code. I found many others too!
Thanks for visiting, Rudy, and all the way from sunny California. But sorry, I think we speak different languages, despite my being a Christian.
2005 edition is good, too.
Daniella (otherwise known by your alias, sxxyd): perhaps we just see things much the same way because of our shared Canadian blood. As for Sarah, you're right about that(glad to learn you occasionally have time for pleasure reading when you're not editing a magazine). I should have added that anything at all in this series by Robert Atwan is eminently worthy. Everything from the best essays to best sportswriting to best science writing. They're all treats, and make great gifts for any reader, including yourself.
Post a Comment
<< Home