#mark forsyth

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: June Wrap-Up.

Okay, y'all have Convinced Me--I'm going to start doing little wrap up posts! Behold: a shelf of what I read in June (not pictured: the bookmark at page 466 of ORDINARY MONSTERS, because despite having read two (2) books worth of book so far, I'm still not quite done with that one).

June was kind of a slow reading month for me (I did a LOT of writing, looking back--nice). I wanted to take OTHER TERRORS and THE ELEMENTS OF ELOQUENCE a bite at a time so the horrors and figures of rhetoric (respectively) didn't all run together. Both of those, much like A SHINING, turned out to be pleasantly leisurely wanders, whereas MONSTERS is kind of a plod.

I already did bigger write-ups for TERRORS and SHINING, linked in the bullets below.

OTHER TERRORS - ★★★★ Great bite-sized horror anthology with a really inclusive mix, as promised! I enjoyed most of these (always nice in an anthology!)

A SHINING - ★★★★ Weird fucked up heavy little book in translation, lit-fic flavored, but very approachable, I thought. Tiny enough to swallow in a sitting, but also kind of exhausting to do it that way? I'll definitely reread this one in the future.

THE ELEMENTS OF ELOQUENCE - ★★★ Fun romp through rhetoric! The examples were fun, and I appreciated the humor, but I also find myself still uncertain what a bunch of the figures actually ARE, definitions-wise, despite having read a book full of so many of them (I did just buy his recommended A HANDLIST OF RHETORICAL TERMS to help with that, at least, which is. almost entirely. definitions by volume). Neat thing to have on my references shelf, but it wasn't as excellent as I was hoping it'd be.

ORDINARY MONSTERS - 466/658 pages read; will report back later (but it's not looking good, folks).

[youre-brilliant]

“Shakespeare got better because he learnt. Now some people will tell you that great writing cannot be learnt. Such people should be hit repeatedly on the nose until they promise not to talk nonsense any more.” Mark Forsyth, Elements of Eloquence

A good piece of advice from a great book acquired during the period when I still thought I would be an author and prepared accordingly. The book itself, and it’s companions The Etymologicon and The Horologicon are great for anyone interested in English, writing, or beautifully bound books.

[zwoelffarben]

Hi! I’ve just come from your glorious analysis of the Hot Dog water poem, and I was wondering if you had any advice on resources for learning more about this kind of poetic analysis? I’ve been really interested in learning more. Thanks!

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I've only got one resource to recommend. It's a book that changed the trajectory of my life because I found it at the perfect time for it to do that, and I love it very much; but it is only one book.

Mark Forsyth (@.TheInkyFool on twitter last I checked)'s Elements of Eloquence: Secrets to the Perfect Turn of Phrase is a book I picked up quite some years ago and it is one of my most beloved books, beside my copy of Wingbeats and the recent addition of Legends and Lattes (I don't have many books which belong-belong to me unfortunately, working on remedying that slowly).

The book's central thesis is that shakespeare and all them wrote such good words because they'd been explicitly taught the figures of rhetoric in grammar and made good use of those lessons in their work, and we don't get taught that bullshit (affectionate) in school anymore, and your lucky to know what an alliteration is by the end of your learning, let alone a chaismus or zuegma.

To borrow Forsyth's opening argument's metaphor, Shakespeare and them were given full access to a pantry of spices and taught which spices do what things; meanwhile our asses over here cooking blindfolded and hopen' for the best.

The aim of the text then, through through 39 short essays marked as chapters each one dedicated to a single figures of rhetoric (the patterns in the stucture of words), is to remove the blindfold, so that we can at least get to the same starting position as shakespeare.

The first poem I ever consider* myself having wrote, was a response to chapter thirty-two Epanelepsis, which said, "this one's difficult to use, Shakespeare had trouble getting it to work, [cc]" and my contrarian ass said "Bet," put the book down for a minute, and drafted an okay version one of a poem which through revision became an okay poem, focusing on Epanelepsis's effect.

Pick up the book if you can, have a read through, maybe try your hand at writing a poem or two in each figure that strikes your fancy. It's as good a starting point about this sort of thing as any other.

*My childhood poems wherever they might have flown are alas, gone too far a field to return and thereby I don't consider them to count.

[akiraofthefour]

"Great men and women do not busy themselves in the kitchen hoping to achieve the immortality that can be conferred by a recipe book. They simply wait until a food is named after them."

Mark Forsyth, Etymologicon

[ostensiblynone]

February 2024 books

[margysmusings]

“Poetry is much more important than the truth, and, if you don't believe that, try using the two methods to get laid.” ― Mark Forsyth, The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

[boanerges20]

Mark Forsythe

[denver-carrington]

First and Last Lines: Andrew Laird.

[whatamigonnawatchtoday]

Poor Things

2024. Comedy Drama Science Fiction

By Yorgos Lanthimos

Starring: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Kathryn Hunter, Jerrod Carmichael, Hanna Shygulla, Margaret Qualley, Vicki Pepperdine, Suzy Bemba, Keeley Forsyth...

Country: Ireland, United States, United Kingdom

Language: English

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: THE ELEMENTS OF ELOQUENCE by Mark Forsyth.

I haven't dual-wielded fiction and nonfiction simultaneously, recently, and I want to take some Writerly Vibes into revisions, so! Here's one book of the three I recently acquired by this guy, because it looks like Fun With English, and I'm always here for that.

[camyfilms]

POOR THINGS 2023

So you wish to marry me, or kill me? Is that the proposal?

[nofatclips]

Do You Love Me Like I Love You, Part 13: Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus - A documentary by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard about the album by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

[akiraofthefour]

"The idea was that if you were clever enough to understand Latin, you couldn't possibly be a pervert."

Mark Forsyth, Etymologicon

[trillestat3]

[sandsniffer]

e.

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[stuff-diary]

Poor Things

Movies watched in 2024

Poor Things (2023, Ireland/UK/USA)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Writer: Tony McNamara (based on the the novel by Alasdair Gray)

Mini-review:

I finally got around to watching this and I liked it a lot. I can't say it met the crazy expectations people had set for me, but it's definitely a great movie. It presents so many interesting ideas and jaw-droppingly stunning and/or disturbing imagery. It may not handle some of its topics with as much grace as it could, but Emma Stone's bravura performance carries the film and more than makes up for any possible flaws. She really does outstanding work in this film, masterfully controlling her voice, face and body. On top of that, the sets and costumes are gorgeous to the point of being awe-inspiring. And the movie never gets boring, even though it's rather long. So yeah, while I might not have loved Poor Things as much as other people, I can see why it's been so popular.