#(Lord of the Flies is neither particularly interesting nor shockingly well written) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

soapdish290 · 11 months ago

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When I was 18 through about 23 I was obsessed with language over story. I read, almost exclusively, for the language. For the turn of phrase. For the sentence that would make me stop and go "wow".

I don't do that any more (which is good this is an unreasonable way to try and enjoy books but I was young, in the middle of an English Literature degree, and pretentious) but it means I haven't read anything specifically for the language in forever. I'm more likely to skim read for the story than to sit and analyse for the writing.

All this to say that I want to fall in love with language again. I'ma get pretentious and find some book that makes old white dudes go "wow! such elegance!" and read it. Out loud.

#Probably don't do the skimming for the story thing either that's equally bad #I contain multitudes #but they're all bad reading habits #anyway there's a character in a Stephen King novel - I think Hearts in Atlantis?#who says that some books are great for the story #and some books are great for the language #and VERY few are great for both #and those books are the treasures #heavily paraphrased #he's talking about fucking Lord of The Flies I think because King is full of shit #(Lord of the Flies is neither particularly interesting nor shockingly well written)#but he's got the spirit #Hey look there's a bonus post in the tags of my post #I'm so shit at The Internet

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