John Updike was my role model from early in my writing efforts. There were no writing classes available to me back then, no Internet, no computers even. But I was transfixed by the word magic he created. I learned by reading and osmosis. Updike's short stories, I thought then, were the epitome of sophistication. I'm more critical of his chauvinistic content nowadays but damn, still dazzled by how he says it.
Gosh, I love your blog. Nowhere else can I find someone who will ignite my summer imagination with a discussion of "mid-branching" sentences. It makes me think that I might enjoy teaching again. And then I remember that teaching's enjoyments are infrequently intellectual.
Such a good sentence. I do love striking images, and I'm in awe of the syntax as well. Here's my attempt. I've copied the general shape of Updike's fairly closely.
Her bed, permanently afloat in an ocean of shoes, books, scribbled study notes and a conglomeration of clean and dirty laundry, was an island of order and minimalism, ordered because she was a firm believer in an uncluttered sleeping place, an island because this belief had its limits: she was still a teenager.
John Updike was my role model from early in my writing efforts. There were no writing classes available to me back then, no Internet, no computers even. But I was transfixed by the word magic he created. I learned by reading and osmosis. Updike's short stories, I thought then, were the epitome of sophistication. I'm more critical of his chauvinistic content nowadays but damn, still dazzled by how he says it.
Gosh, I love your blog. Nowhere else can I find someone who will ignite my summer imagination with a discussion of "mid-branching" sentences. It makes me think that I might enjoy teaching again. And then I remember that teaching's enjoyments are infrequently intellectual.
Such a good sentence. I do love striking images, and I'm in awe of the syntax as well. Here's my attempt. I've copied the general shape of Updike's fairly closely.
Her bed, permanently afloat in an ocean of shoes, books, scribbled study notes and a conglomeration of clean and dirty laundry, was an island of order and minimalism, ordered because she was a firm believer in an uncluttered sleeping place, an island because this belief had its limits: she was still a teenager.