Nalo Hopkinson on Writing Descriptively

I just finished reading Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight Robber.  This Caribbean-flavored science fiction book is about coming of age, surviving sexual abuse, human refusal to accept other species as sentient and equal despite their own history of struggles, privacy in a world of an all knowing artificial intelligence, and much more. 

What is so striking in Hopkinson's prose is her ability to evoke a new world, completely realized, founded in Jamaican folk tales and language rhythms.  Through her words, the reader can  envision the world of New Half Way Tree through all five senses.  I was so pleased to find Hopkinson's mini-lesson on "How to Write Descriptively" as part of the Ted Ed series of lessons.  Hopkinson deconstructs passages from several authors to determine how "to cast a spell, a momentary illusion that you are living in the world of the story."  As she explains "ghost-quiet" is much more effective in the cited passage than "quiet as a ghost."  The writer doesn't just evoke sound but through effective word choice can dictate quality of sound, touch, and motion in the passage:

"The world was ghost-quiet, except for the crack of sails and the burbling of water against hull."  Tobias Buckell, Hurricane Fever

As Hopkinson concludes, the writer can use effective word choice to engage the reader's senses and then establish "unexpected connotations among your story elements and set your readers' brushfire imaginations alight."

My article Cited in Wild Equids Book

I did some more research. My article "Detecting the Origin of Icelandic Horses" is also referenced in "The Roles of Humans in Horse Distribution" by Sandra Olsen, pp. 105-120, in the book Wild Equids: Ecology, Management, and Conservation edited by Jason I. Ransom, Petra Kaczensky, John Hopkins University Press, May 15, 2016

https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/wild-equids

My Article Cited in Russian Publication

My article on "Detecting Icelandic Horse Origins" has not only been cited as a source in Wikipedia but it is also cited in a historic article "A Scientific and Historical Investigation on Mongolian Horses" in a Russian publication.

You can read more about the Norse and Mongolian ponies at:

http://historic-journal.ru/2017/scientific-and-historical-investigation-on-mongolian-horses/

Sitting Pretty in Equus Magazine

The 2017 September edition of Equus Magazine published my article "Sitting Pretty" about my Icelandic horse Blessi and Mitttens, the cat who wanted to learn how to ride.  Here's a quote from my story:

"Mittens seemed to enjoy her lead line rides on Blessi around the stable grounds.  From her lofty perch, she was out of reach of the barn dogs, who were polite but tended to crowd cats on the ground.  No self-respecting cat enjoys the constant butt sniffing involved in canine socialization."

Cry me a synecdoche or a Quiz on Trophes

Can you cry me a synecdoche?  Here's a quiz on trophes.

Greek Muse--photo from Wikipedia

1.   Giving human characteristics to animals, vegetables, minerals and other things
2.   Using a part to represent the whole enchalata
3.   Exaggerating big league
4.   Representing one thing by something that is associated with it
5.   Referring to one thing to represent another thing based on similarity
6.   Referring to one thing to basically an unlike thing usually using comparison words such as "like" "as" "so"
7.   Linking two contradictory words; usually found in government and the military
8.  Making somebody groan by word play that the originator usually thinks is funnier than the listener
9.  Understating for effect or to negate its opposite
10.  Revealing a truth in a witty, concise way



a. Metanyony,  b. Litote,   c. Synecdoche,   d. Pun,  e. Oxymoron,  f.  Hyperbole,  g., Simile
h., Metaphor    i.  Personification   j. Aphorism  

Depending on your score, here is how you rank in your knowledge of literary devices.

10         You are TS Elliot.
7 to 9     You are Sylvia Plath.
5 to 7     You are ee cummings.  
under 5  Pick your own poet name.  You win because who cares about these old Greek expressions. 

Answers:  1 i,   2 c,    3 f,   4  a,   5 g,  6 h,  7 e,  8 d   9 b  10 j
b.

Nick Tabor's Analysis of Yeat's "The Second Coming"

Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” is a metaphor made up of metaphors.  Nick Tabor in his article “No Slouch” in The Paris Review brilliantly analyzes the poem and documents the “widening gyre of heavy-handed allusions” to this poem.  He enumerates over 36 citations from political commentary to comic books to Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart.  He argues that “…Yeats’s lines work outside their context because the word pairings are brilliant in and of themselves.” 

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/04/07/no-slouch/ 

Yeats "The Second Coming" Read by Tom O'Bedlam

Tom O'Bedlam reads WB Yeats "The Second Coming."  This poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War.  As an Irish poet, Yeats wrote this poem at the beginning of the Irish War of Independence from Great Britain.