How would you describe the tone Lovecraft uses? Does he rely heavily onadjectives, or is his writing more spare, like Hemingway’s? Find some examples
What will be an ideal response?
- The most immediately noticeable aspect of Lovecraft’s writing in this story is the attempt to create a tone of eeriness and dread, in a style that involves a strong dependence on adjectives, especially those intended to create mood and atmosphere; these word choices also seem intended to cue the reader’s responses. Stylistically, this is at the furthest possible remove from the stripped-down directness of Ernest Hemingway’s celebrated style. Edmund Wilson, who was a great admirer of Hemingway’s early stories, is especially caustic on this element of Lovecraft’s work:
The only real horror in most of these fictions is the horror of bad taste and bad art. Lovecraft was not a good writer. The fact that his verbose and undistinguished style has been compared to Poe’s is only one of the many sad signs that almost nobody any more pays any real attention to writing. I have never yet found in Lovecraft a single sentence that Poe could have written, though there are some—not at all the same thing—that have evidently been influenced by Poe…. One of Lovecraft’s worst faults is his incessant effort to work up the expectations of the reader by sprinkling his stories with such adjectives as “horrible,” “terrible,” “frightful,” “awesome,” “eerie,” “weird,” “forbidden,” “unhallowed,” “unholy,” “blasphemous,” “hellish” and “infernal.” Surely one of the primary rules for writing an effective tale of horror is never to use any of these words—especially if you are going, at the end, to produce an invisible whistling octopus. (“Tales of the Marvellous and the Ridiculous,” reprinted in Edmund Wilson, Classics and Commercials, New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1950, p. 288)
Wilson’s comments may well be worth sharing with your class: in addition to demonstrating that laments over the decline of taste and standards are a staple of every period, they raise valuable points for discussion about Lovecraft’s style in particular and about effective rhetorical strategies in general. (Interestingly, Lovecraft himself later described “The Outsider” as “almost comic in the bombastic pomposity of its language.”)
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Cosas de amigas. Eugenia está preocupada por su compañera de cuarto Natalia, así que le escribió este mensaje. Escoge el verbo apropiado entre paréntesis y llena el espacio en blanco con la forma correcta del presente del subjuntivo. Hola, Natalia:Decidí escribirte este mensaje porque me preocupa que tú (despertarse / acostarse) (1) ____________________ tan tarde por la mañana para ir a tus clases, especialmente porque empiezan a las ocho de la mañana. Quizás es necesario que tú (acostarse / morirse) (2) ____________________ más temprano. Es mejor que nosotras (repetir / dormir) (3) ____________________ al menos ocho horas cada noche. ¿Y las clases? Probablemente es necesario que tus padres te (buscar / sentir) (4) ____________________ un tutor. Además, Natalia, estoy muy
triste de que tú y Tomás ya no (hablarse / ponerse) (5) _________________. ¡Siento mucho que él no (empezar / comprender) (6) ___________________ lo especial que tú eres! Tú sabes que soy tu amiga, ¿no? ¿Por qué no me llames más tarde? Un abrazo,Eugenia(6) Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).
¿Cómo le describirías los moáis a un amigo?
What will be an ideal response?
However, students must have a __________ grasp of English to avail themselves of
these opportunities. A) reasonably good B) reasonable good C) real good
Choose the option that corrects the following dangling modifier: After working in
the yard all day, the swimming pool provided much relief. a) The swimming pool provided much relief after working in the yard all day. b) After working in the yard all day, we welcomed the relief provided by the swimming pool. c) After working in the yard all day, much relief was provided by the swimming pool.