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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

ON CHESIL BEACH (FOR REAL)

Cbch Writing for the Telegraph, Alistair Fraser examines Chesil Beach, "the 18-mile stretch of Dorset shingle that has long inspired writers and delighted holidaymakers."

In the opening pages of Ian McEwan's new novel, On Chesil Beach, its two central characters are worrying about their wedding night. Edward and Florence, married earlier in the day, have driven to a small Georgian hotel on the Dorset coast and are now dining in their private rooms.

They are both virgins (this is 1962, before the Sixties began 'swinging' and people learnt to voice their intimate feelings) and the air is thick with tension. One has conventional first-night nerves, the other a more deep-rooted dread - "a helpless disgust" - of what will take place after dinner.

To lighten the mood, they turn in their chairs to consider the view. Through the evening mist, they see a mossy lawn and a lane leading to the beach...

I paused reading my copy of the book and looked up to consider an almost identical view. Earlier that morning, I had checked into the Manor Hotel, in the hamlet of West Bexington. Now, through the window of my room, I, too, could see a lawn and narrow lane descending to Chesil Beach.

Posted by TEV at 12:19 AM in World Beat |

Comments

I enjoyed that breathtaking photo of Chesil Beach - and the theme of the novel being so 'pure' is a perfect combination of imagination and a good choice of setting.

Posted by: Coll B. Lue | April 16, 2007 at 11:39 AM

Regarding Chesil Beach. What do readers think about Florence's repulsion to sex? My wife, a writer, came away with not just a straight on sad story, but underlying subtile messages earler in the book that many have indicated a block in Florence's memory about sex with her father. She had regressed that memory until she was lying on the bed and anticipating sex with Edward. Any others believe that that may have been a possibility? Greg

Posted by: greg | August 26, 2007 at 12:27 PM

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