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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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August 15, 2006

BOOKER LONGLIST

As has been widely noted during our little vacation absence, The Man Booker Prize longlist has been announced.  Accordingly, the deluge of press coverage has begun.  (Stop by Max's place, where he has a nice post up of all the covers of the nominated titles.)

Ed is as sure to be chuffed about Mitchell's inclusion (preemptive favorite according to the oddsmakers) as we are at Carey's nod for his fine Theft.

Posted by TEV at 12:30 AM in Prizes, Prizes and More Prizes |

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And note FOUR titles published/co-published in the US by Grove/Atlantic, distributed by your good friends @ PGW:

Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
Kate Grenville, The Secret River
M.J. Hyland, Carry Me Down
Edward St Aubyn, Mother's Milk

Posted by: Keith | August 15, 2006 at 09:34 AM

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