#lr3366

Picking an imitation piece this week provided the perfect opportunity to focus on versatility by picking a reading with a style different from what I would normally pick as I would typically go for an easy and smooth style, however this week we will concentrate on experimenting with the sentence structure, word choice, and rhythm of the piece, so by picking a more difficult and harsh reading I can optimize my versatility and grow exponentially with this assignment. 

The paragraph I have chosen is from a Gillian Flynn novel. You may be familiar with her work as she wrote “Gone Girl” and “The Girl on the Train.” My imitation will come from her story “Sharp Objects.” If you are not familiar with the novel, I really recommend it. After reading, you can also check out the mini-series on HBO. 

I have several favorite quotes in this novel, however, most of them are about 250-300 words, and I really need about 500 for this assignment, so I searched for something that was harsh, raw, and direct that fit the word count requirement. 

““It was that summer, too, that I began the cutting, and was almost as devoted to it as to my newfound loveliness. I adored tending to myself, wiping a shallow red pool of my blood away with a damp washcloth to magically reveal, just above my naval: queasy. Applying alcohol with dabs of a cotton ball, wispy shreds sticking to the bloody lines of: perky. I had a dirty streak my senior year, which I later rectified. A few quick cuts and cunt becomes can't, cock turns into back, clit transforms to a very unlikely cat, the l and i turned into a teetering capital A. The last words I ever carved into myself, sixteen years after I started: vanish. Sometimes I can hear the words squabbling at each other across my body. Up on my shoulder, panty calling down to cherry on the inside of my right ankle. On the underside of a big toe, sew uttering muffled threats to baby, just under my left breast. I can quiet them down by thinking of vanish, always hushed and regal, lording over the other words from the safety of the nape of my neck. Also: At the center of my back, which was too difficult to reach, is a circle of perfect skin the size of a fist. Over the years I've made my own private jokes. You can really read me. Do you want me to spell it out for you? I've certainly given myself a life sentence. Funny, right? I can't stand to look myself without being completely covered. Someday I may visit a surgeon, see what can be done to smooth me, but now I couldn't bear the reaction. Instead I drink so I don't think too much about what I've done to my body and so I don't do any more. Yet most of the time that I'm awake, I want to cut. Not small words either. Equivocate. Inarticulate. Duplicitous. At my hospital back in Illinois they would not approve of this craving. For those who need a name, there's a gift basket of medical terms. All I know is that the cutting made me feel safe. It was proof. Thoughts and words, captured where I could see them and track them. The truth, stinging, on my skin, in a freakish shorthand. Tell me you're going to the doctor, and I'll want to cut worrisome on my arm. Say you've fallen in love and I buzz the outlines of tragic over my breast. I hadn't necessarily wanted to be cured. But I was out of places to write, slicing myself between my toes - bad, cry - like a junkie looking for one last vein. Vanish did it for me. I'd saved the neck, such a nice prime spot, for one final good cutting. Then I turned myself in.”

I’m honestly so proud of myself cause I finished the assignment that was due today IN ADVANCE. I’m used to rushing to make tumblr posts at the very last minute and trying to put the finishing touches on whatever essay is due that week, but this time I started working in advance and I got the Imitation and Analysis Essay done YESTERDAY.

I didn’t have to get very far in this week’s reading to feel an immediate connection to the author. Sure, my first thought was, “I’m an English nerd, but it takes a SPECIAL kind of English nerd to want to read style manuals for fun.” But, once I moved past that thought, I was able to really identify with Pinker’s thoughts on style manuals and how they should be perceived by writers.

In my style essay, I argued that while style guides can be extremely helpful, they can also inhibit a writer’s and an editor’s work. Sometimes there are things in style guides that shouldn’t be followed. Pinker seems to be making just this point. However, Pinker goes a step further than I did to describe how following a style guide can inhibit writing and editing, and analyzes WHY style guides can be inhibiting.

I really liked his point that “a skilled writer should...push back against copy editors who, under the influence of grammatically naïve style guides, blue-pencil every passive construction they spot into an active one.” (2) The specific idea here is that some style guides will encourage zero use of the passive voice, even though in certain cases the passive voice can be useful if not necessary. However, his general idea here is what I really clung to. The idea that writers should know better than to blindly follow style guides is extremely important. Style guides are just that: guides. They are useful tools to help writers and editors create a cohesive and easily understandable product. Writers and editors should not feel obligated to follow these guides to a tee.