And now for the rest of the alphabet. There was a lot that caught my interest in the second half of the book. It seemed there was a much heavier focus on the personal/lyric essay, so for a good bit of it I felt like I was rereading an article for my creative nonfiction class--recognizable quotes were cropping up everywhere. I like the idea of the journey/exploration, the idea of asking questions without really sorting out definite answers, which can be applied both to nonfiction and to the collage. And speaking of collage, I enjoyed that chapter, as well; I think we've already discussed the concepts behind most of it, but out of the various descriptions, #319--"Life though...flies at us in bright splinters"--was my absolute favorite thus far.
One of my only complaints was the chapter "in praise of brevity." I definitely see the value and beauty in brevity, and agree that "omission is a form of creation." However, I don't believe that the briefest route is always the best route when it comes to writing. Sometimes a situation calls for an excess, an overwhelming and exasperating flow of words, unnecessary, repetitive, rambling, and on and on and on. Because that is just another aspect of life. And according to the the book, we're supposed to be reflecting life in our work, right? Well, I guess it depends on which chapter you read. It's always twisting into contradictions, anyway. And no, I'm not really sure if I'm referring to the book or life anymore...so I guess David Shields did a pretty good job of it.
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