Up The Amazon on a Rubber Dick

sekahyyh:

vandorwolf:

deebella123:

brain-food:

On June 26, 1956, author C.S. Lewis responded to a fan letter from Joan Lancaster, a young Chronicles of Narnia enthusiast.

In a personalized thank-you letter, the writer imparted some simple and valuable stylistic advice for budding prose writers. 

I love this man.

Reblog forever!

I’ve hated C.S. Lewis’ style since I was a child. E.B. White’s too, and more recently, in my life at least, Hemingway’s and Steinbeck’s, outside of The Grapes of Wrath, where this particular idea of how a story should be formatted was less obvious and detrimental. All four of them pushed this style; all four of them are some of my least favorite classical authors.

Fuck this. Different authors approach the written word in different ways. It’s about finding your own style and experimenting, not copy-catting ones that have worked for others in the past. I’m not talking about précieuses, I’m talking about the variety and beauty of the written word, and my utter disdain for anyone who tries to narrow it down to a few simple stylistic rules. Even grammatical ones can be broken, as e.e. cummings spent his entire career proving, let alone stylistic.