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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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March 05, 2008

DUTTONS MEMORIES

Janet Fitch writes in to advise us that she is collecting your Duttons memories:

The news of Dutton's closure has hit us all terribly hard here in literary LA… I got this announcement for Kerry Madden's book signing Thursday night, and she included this:

It is with bittersweetness that I'm announcing this reading, because Duttons will be closing permanently at the end of April. I gave my very first reading from my first novel, OFFSIDES, at Duttons in 1996. My son, Flannery, was eight-years-old, and he wanted to wear a tie to my first booksigning. (One of the few times in his life that Flannery, now 19, has ever worn a tie!) My husband was working that night, so I had both kids with me. I didn't have time to put on the tie (or know how) so Doug Dutton taught Flannery how to tie his tie before my reading. Duttons was the store that invited me to read when other stores said no. From the very beginning, they have supported me and so many other new authors and I will miss them very much. I hope you can join me on Thursday night for a reading and Smoky Mountain music and most of all - a celebration of one of Los Angeles finest bookstores, Duttons.

I too had my first reading at Dutton's--for a young adult novel nobody ever heard of then or since, but Dutton's was willing to give me a try, as I was local and had a lot of family I swore would all come and buy three copies, which they did. And it occurred to me that many of us have our Dutton's story. The store has been that much a part of our lives--who we saw there, what we bought, the encounters and assignations… and we'd like to assemble these memories, at least for us and for Doug, in homage to a very special place.

So please, if you have a Dutton's story you'd like to share, e-mail me.

Posted by TEV at 09:10 AM in Local Heroes |

Comments

Madden's son is named Flannery ... that is uber-fabulous.

Posted by: Liberty | March 05, 2008 at 08:44 PM

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