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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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April 16, 2007

BUT THEY DO PADLOCK THE MINIBAR

We remember wandering wide-eyed through the lobby of London's Savoy Hotel when we were sixteen, soaking in the history of the place.   If only we'd known at the time that the hotel hosts a writer-in-residence.  Which we think is pretty cool in that quaintly offbeat British fashion.

The rewards are obvious. Three months free in a fancy hotel suite that would otherwise cost about $1,600 per night, with breakfast thrown in, and a chance to make your base in the center of one of the world's great cities.

The drawbacks? There aren't any.

"It's like living in another world," Morpurgo said. "I'm a country boy, I've lived on a farm for the last 30 years, and suddenly here I am living in the Savoy, talking to people, meeting people who care about books, and I must say, selfishly, the best thing is I can go to the theater when I feel like it, to the movies, to concerts. It's a prolonged treat."

Posted by TEV at 12:22 AM in World Beat |

Comments

Paul

Sheesh -- "quaint" -- one word Americans should never use when describing Britain or British society, it sounds terribly patronising and stereotypical.

Posted by: Paul | April 18, 2007 at 08:39 AM

Coll B. Lue

I've been to Harrods to have afternoon tea because I was just 'waltzing' through the store to get some Evening Primrose oil - (they do the best there) and it felt like I was actually at the Savoy. Now the Savoy - ahh that is the creme de la creme of hotelerie I guess -I can but just imagine the type of 'heaven' you're speaking about. Not to mention the literary connections.

Posted by: Coll B. Lue | April 18, 2007 at 12:03 PM

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