This summer session at the ALC is a dream. I have a great course load (composition, science fiction, and creative writing).
Currently, we are reading H.P. Lovecraft's classic "Herbert West - Reanimator" in sci fi right now.
The kids are getting into it - mostly because it's a classic mad scientist and zombie tale.
But it's Lovecraft, who loves almost impenetrable prose, such as "I shall never forget that hideous summer sixteen years ago, when like a noxious afrite from the halls of Eblis typhoid stalked leeringly through Arkham" or "In the radical theory of reanimation they saw nothing but the immature vagaries of a youthful enthusiast whose slight form, yellow hair, spectacled blue eyes, and soft voice gave no hint of the supernormal - almost diabolical - power of the cold brain within" or "Age has more charity for these incomplete yet high-souled characters, whose worst real vice is timidity, and who are ultimately punished by general ridicule for their intellectual sins - sins like Ptolemaism, Calvinism, anti-Darwinism, anti-Nietzscheism, and every sort of Sabbatarianism and sumptuary legislation."
Whoa. This is one reason we are listening to the story. Lovecraft has some truly chilling prose, but he has some truly dense and impenetrable prose as well. I think this is one reason he often doesn't get the credit he deserves.
1 comment:
I've always been of the opinion that a balanced share of complex sentences add to the readability of good writing.
However, a complex sentence should be in itself both readable and clear. If you have to reread a sentence several times to discern the meaning, the flow of the story is lost. A good writer should be capable of meaningful sentences that enhance, not interrupt,the flow.
The sample sentences seem to me a real reason why some kids don't like to read. I read extensively, but those sentence would vex me.
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