About Language or Literature

I have recently been spending my free time reading a collection of short stories titled Different Seasons by Stephen King. In this collection there are four stories which are all set in one of the four respective seasons of the year: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. While almost everyone knows Stephen King as a "master" of horror, these stories take a turn from his usual style. As this is my first encounter with King's writing, I am relatively new to his writing. Even so, I am thoroughly impressed with his literary skills. He possesses many skills in his writing that I long to be able to use in my own writing. Aside from the fact that King's imagination is extremely colorful, he is also skilled with the use of words. Like most great writers, King blends literary genius with an amazing sense of story telling which captures the reader and keeps people coming back.

King stepped out of his horror stereotype in the first story, entitled Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. In this first story King shows his mastery of character development by creating Andy Dufresne. In the story, which is told from the point of view of a fellow inmate at Shawshank Prison, King uses situations and character descriptions to convince not only the narrator, but also the reader that Dufresne has been wrongly convicted and sentenced. By placing Dufresne in extreme and maybe even outlandish situations while in prison and then chronicling the resolutions to these events, the reader gets a good grasp on Dufresne's nature. King shows that adjectives are not the only way to describe someone but instead, people can be described by the decisions they make in everyday life.

In the next story, The Body King is at it again. Recanting a childhood odyssey in the dog days of summer, King paints a spectacular portrait of four young, bad-mouthed boys and their fall from innocence. This time King seems to focus on the topic of friendship (never straying from his same old detailed character development, of course) and the way it seems to grow the most when you least expect it to. The story can be tricky since it is about 120 pages long, yet it spans about two and a half days. In this short period of time, the main character (who i believe to be a loose sketch of King himself) learns the true meaning of friendship and realizes that sometimes friends know more about you than your parents, or even you, yourself know. The beauty of this story is that almost every reader can easily relate to this type of friendship which comes out of nowhere, yet lasts forever.

In King's Winter story, The Breathing Method he uses a unique technique which was first noted to me by my English teacher Mr. Carty. This technique involves using description in sort of a backwards way. Since it can be difficult to explain, examples seem to work best. Here's one: "He entered the room and was immediately hit by a wall of odor; the smell of dust and black flooded his nostrils. The odor was stinging and sharp." In this example, all of the reader's senses are flipped. How can something smell black? How could a smell feel sharp? It is an absurd thing once you dwell on it. Yet I'm sure in your mind you were able to grasp what this odor must have been like. As Mr. Carty explained, this technique is not new by any means. Shakespeare used this style flawlessly 4 centuries ago. And slightly more recently, the poet and artist Dr. Seuss put this technique into effect. While simply using this technique does not put King in the same class as these literary heroes, it is easy to see how King has been able to build such a successful career.

While I have not yet started reading the fourth and final story in this collection, i expect only more of the same from King. When an author can specialize in a genre the way King has, yet still write stories that are just as captivating in other genres, it calls for praise. The reason i believe King was able to do this is because he has a strong base in writing which is constructed of creative and descriptive storytelling that can transform even the most boring of topics, making them interesting. I am very much looking forward to beginning the final story in the collection.

Like, Whatever...

Taylor Mali issues a great challenge to everyone in his motivational poem concerning speaking with conviction. He starts his speech asking his audience to think about the manner in which people tend to speak. He explains how people love to turn their declarative statements into sentences that end with what he calls an "invisible question mark." He gives many examples of these inquisitive truths while highlighting the reasons why it isn't right to do this. Also, he hits on the unfortunate and over-used phrase "ya know," explaining how it takes away from a statement immediately by making the speaker sound unsure of his or her own points. He uses hypocrisy to make more evident the point he is trying to make. His short speech ends with a challenge to speak with authority and conviction because after all, if you don't even believe in what you say, how can you convince anyone else that you're right?
 I believe that Mali is spot-on with what he is speaking about and he his is spot-on with the way he is conveying his points. This comical, yet meaningful use of hypocrisy is very efficient in making a lasting impression. It seems that all of the world should be forced to listen to (and possibly memorize) this speech. It is very annoying to listen to someone try to convince people of something when they sound like they aren't even sure if they believe what they're saying. While I must admit that I can be guilty of committing this error, I also see first-hand everyday people who do this in school. They have the correct answer, or maybe a great idea to contribute to the discussion, yet they begin with "I don't know if this is right," or "I could be wrong, but." This completely strips what they are about to say of any solidarity. This is definitely something to think about, especially in school. Overall, I guess this was a pretty good like speech or poem or whatever because it like showed the problems that like a lot of people have and stuff, ya know?......Just Kidding.
-Mitch