“Now, I have seen the power that words can have, the power they do have. I love the power of words – no music or special effects – and I want to demonstrate that power.” - Chuck Palahniuk Chuck Palahniuk is an American author and journalist who can write a story with concrete and realistic facts, but also add thrill that gives the readers excitement to turn to the page. Palahniuk can provide concrete information because of his extensive research in his subjects. After reading many of Palahniuk’s works and interviews, while I might not fall in love with Palahniuk, they way he did with Amy Hempel, I can appreciate his passion for writing and making his readers feel something whether its anger, happiness, or uneasiness. His style of writing it …show more content…
His stories aren’t intended to frighten his audience but to make them feel a little uncomfortable in a good way. In an interview from Nightmare Magazine by Lisa Morton an award-winning screen a non-fiction writer, Palahniuk mentions why he uses dark humor and how his audience reacts to it. Palahniuk turns his dark humor into something light by adding humor, he mentions he would make people “have stress laughs, which really aren’t “ha-ha” laughs, but like the kind of laughs you get…when you’re almost hysterical and you laugh because of hysteria” (Morton, pg. 2). He explains that if he was going to put his audience in a dark place “there would have to be a lot of funny asides that would break the tension…” (Morton, pg. 2). The thing about Palahniuk’s stories that break the tension is, most of the things he writes about is something he is going through. Morton asks if he goes too far, he responds he normally starts novels with something he can resolve in his own life so he “exhaust[s] [his] own emotional reaction by going farther and farther and farther with it. And that tends to resolve the thing itself” (Morton, pg. 3). Palahniuk believes writers can never go too far if the emotions are weighed evenly and their using something personal to get there. Palahniuk’s also teaches his students ‘to stay in the moment, and to give weight to the moments that are most important. One of the …show more content…
He doesn’t write for fame or glory, he writes with the intent to entertain and make an impact on his audience. Palahniuk aims to get his readers and students to believe they can do whatever they set their minds too, that there is nothing certain in the world so they can believe and do anything in the world. He writes with the intent to look past society’s norms and to create individual or unique norms. Palahniuk is a transgressive, nihilist writer who comes off as dark and wickedly grim on the surface, but after going deep, he is an author who hopes his works help his students and readers achieve something they couldn’t achieve
... methods that all rely on pathos. Nikiforuk’s article successfully grabs the reader’s attention and emotion from the beginning and maintains it throughout the text by his skillful use of rhetorical strategies.
“I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” (Zusak 528) Words and the power they possess is a common theme that is heavily mentioned throughout the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Throughout this book, rhetoric affects multiple characters in both positive and negative ways. There are instances in this book in which one can see how words have the ability to tear people down, educate and inform, and to inspire individuals to follow their dreams.
A person’s life is often a journey of study and learning from errors and mistakes made in the past. In both James Joyce’s Araby and John Updike’s A&P, the main characters, subjected to the events of their respective stories, are forced to reflect upon their actions which failed to accomplish their original goal in impressing another character. Evidently, there is a similar thematic element that emerges from incidents in both short stories, which show maturity as an arduous process of learning from failures and a loss of innocence. By analyzing the consequences of the interaction of each main character; the Narrator in Araby and Sammy in A&P; and their persons of infatuation, Mangan’s sister
Strong imagery is created in both, due not just to description but also strong word choices. It is clear great care was taken into conveying mood and atmosphere with Mccarthy’s choices like “cauterized” (page 4) and “feverland” (page 8) and Roberts use of “karmic” (page 35) or “lucious-honeyed” (page 43). Finally, dialogue is an important piece of each story, helping introduce characters and build their characterization, as well as bring up new themes and add to the mood. The reader really feels the generosity, and warm-heartedness of Shataram’s Prabaker through the dialogue used, such as his response to Lindsay gifting him his whiskey by stating, “if I knew this was my whisky and not yours, I would not have been so generous with my good self in the drinking it up.” (page 27) Similarly, the the fierce connection
When asked in an interview what he thought about censorship he said, "You have to have taste." His opinion on screenwriters these days, "they are just too lazy to write without profanity." Ray Bradbury has been giving us things to read for over sixty years. Bradbury's writing style has that something that makes everyone interested. When asked if he considers himself a teacher he said, "As a writer you must be. You can't be self-conscious about it, but if you do something good someone might imitate it. So if you like my writing, you may very well imitate my passion." (Bradbury)
...man and illustrates these experiences to the point where he almost traps his audience in each experience.
He toes a fine line, but there is no romance or pity in his work. He loves his characters, warts and all, as an author must. He shows those who polite society might find wretched and despicable to have real humanity.
Steve Almond’s “Funny is the New Deep” talks of the role that comedy has in our current society, and most certainly, it plays a huge role here. Namely, through what Almond [Aristotle?] calls the “comic impulse”, we as a people can speak of topics that would otherwise make many of uncomfortable. Almond deems the comic impulse as the most surefire way to keep heavy situations from becoming too foreboding. The comic impulse itself stems from our ability and unconscious need to defend and thus contend with the feeling of tragedy. As such, instead of rather forcing out humor, he implies that humor is something that is not consciously forced out from an author, but instead is more of a subconscious entity, coming out on its own. Almond emphasizes
The phrase Black Humor has the broad meaning of poking "fun at subjects considered deadly serious or even taboo by some"2. This definition is simple, and yet embodies an important idea that is often lost in more complex definitions: the idea that Black Humor can actually be "fun", and provoke laughter. This is not, of course, the only important aspect of the term, and I shall explore some of the other important defining features of Black Humor before moving on to discuss its use in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle3.
A successful writer is he who is able to transmit ideas, emotions, and wisdom on to his readers. He is cable of stirring emotions and capturing the reader's attention with vivid descriptions and clever dialogues. The writer can even play with the meanings of words and fuse reality with fiction to achieve his goal of taking the reader on a wonderful journey. His tools are but words, yet the art of writing is found in the use of the language to create though-provoking pieces that defy the changing times. Between the lines, voices and images emerge. Not everyone can write effectively and invoke these voices. It is those few who can create certain psychological effects on the reader who can seize him (or her) with inspiring teachings, frightening thoughts, and playful games with the language. These people are true writers…
Last but not least, O’Connor confirms that even a short story is a multi-layer compound that on the surface may deter even the most enthusiastic reader, but when handled with more care, it conveys universal truths by means of straightforward or violent situations. She herself wished her message to appeal to the readers who, if careful enough, “(…)will come to see it as something more than an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida.”
It has been said of Anton Chekhov, the renown Russian short-story writer, that in all of his “work, there is never exactly a point. Rather we see into someone’s hear – in just a few pages, the curtain concealing these lives has been drawn back, revealing them in all their helplessness and rage and rancor.” Alice Munro, too, falls into this category. Many of her short-stories, such as “Royal Beatings” focus more on character revelation rather than plot.
For example, in John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner,” he uses words purposefully, claiming, “When all are free, then we look -- can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe” (Kennedy). By stating that not everyone has freedom under communism, he intends to convince the world that communism negatively affects the population in order to motivate his audience to escape from their comfort zones and feel obligated to help make a change. Without people who created speeches like Kennedy’s, citizens would not feel very determined and succeed in overcoming global issues. Kennedy made this speech during the same time period as Faulkner’s—the Cold War era. Although Faulkner’s speech was not actually focused on worldwide issues, his hints toward encouraging the anti-Communist side of the world to stand up for themselves reveal his underlying intentions. While simultaneously describing “the writer’s duty,” he fulfills what he believes to be his own duty by implementing references to the state of the world into his speech. Writers and speakers spread information to a vast number of people without even meeting their audience face-to-face, therefore it is their responsibility to take on a bigger role than simply writing about small, less meaningful topics. Instead, they should write in order to promote motivation in their audience as much in addition to expressing their own ideas. In a world where not many humans earn the opportunity to express their thoughts and beliefs on such an immense scale, writers must use their abilities to spread information that benefits the
Emotional discomfort can sometimes be perceived as mental instability. A person may look, act, or feel insane, when in truth they are just very uncomfortable in their own skin. The narrator has a genuinely difficult decision to make which far outside his comfort zone. He is choosing between a woman who has been like a mother to him and much needed job that he feels he may enjoy. This choice is tearing him apart from the inside out. From the ringing noises that interrupt his every thought to the skin he is scraping off. The author uses diction, syntax, and extended metaphors to express the complete and utter discomfort of the narrator, both physically and emotionally.
Both Zadie Smith with “Some Notes on Attunement” and Vanessa Veselka with “Highway of Lost Girls” use their essay to tell a story. Yet in analyzing these pieces of writing, it is clear that there are more to them than just the stories themselves. These stories, filled with personal thoughts and experiences, also are full of an assortment of stylistic choices such as repetition and comparisons that emphasize many deep, underlying ideas.