Sunday, April 10, 2011

Sentences that sing

This coming Tuesday (4.12) we'll be looking into the inner lives of sentences—great sentences, which communicate more than their literal content. I can't wait to serve up a few from David Foster Wallace's posthumous novel The Pale King:

“An arrow of starlings fired from the windbreak’s thatch.”

“The broken centerline shot Morse at them.” ( a road trip)

“Outside in the sky to the northwest are great sheer walls of rimlit sunset clouds in whose interior there is sometimes muttering and light.”


That third one is a little strained and wordy, despite its rich imagery. How would you simplify and polish it?



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