Friday, February 10, 2012

Style
Style of writing is almost like DNA, it defines the writer and the piece they are creating. It helps shape the message they are attempting to deliver to the reader. Depending on the topic and genre, style plays a huge part in the art of telling a story.  I have chosen to write about a story we read earlier in the semester called Liar!. I found this to be a very interesting story about humans and machines, and their interaction amongst each other. The four main characters discover that a robot they have created has the ability to read minds. They must now discover the origin to this design flaw before it gets out to the public. The author chose a unique style to write this story. He uses several mini conversations among the different characters that eventually leads to their downfall. He intertwines the different characters and slowly reveals hidden conflicts that we did not see at the beginning of the story. One character is in love with the other. Another is bitter at a certain character for holding onto a post that he wishes to obtain. These seemingly subtle conflicts, along with some well written dialogue, lead to the humans turning against each other at the hand of their own creation, the robot.  This style of writing does a great deal of justice to the story and the message the author is attempting to convey. He divides the characters and their problems and as they build upon each other, we see that there will have to be an epic climax. The climax surely comes about when the characters reunite and confront their creation. I really enjoyed the story, but especially how it was written. I think the same story could have gone a different direction, but in no way delivered as powerful of a message. I honestly believed that the style of story telling that the author chose to use gave us a great piece to read, and some useful lessons to learn about ourselves.

1 comment:

  1. Good! I think you are right on when you say style is like DNA--while, unlike DNA, some aspects of a writer's style are alterable, there are certain aspects of style that are identifiable like a fingerprint, particularly for readers who are really committed to a specific writer. If you like Asimov's style, know that he's insanely prolific; there's tons of stuff you can read. One good place to start might be his _Foundation_ series, which is in many ways considered his masterwork.

    Note: your blog is set to Pacific time. As a result, all your posts are timestamped 3 hours earlier than it was when you wrote it. Please change it to Eastern. Thanks!

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