Subject: Re: colours
From: jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Date: Fri Feb 11 2000 - 15:57:01 EST
On Fri, 11 Feb 2000, Scottie Bowman wrote:
>
> Remember, incidentally, that colours - which in
> certain technical contexts may have a diagnostic value -
> should, by & large, be avoided in descriptive writing.
> Nothing is more deadening than the amateur's common
> mistake of trying to convey the exact shades falling
> within his vision: coral pinks, azure blues, copper oranges,
> bottle greens & so on.
While I'm in Scottie's camp when it comes to color (and even colours),
I don't believe it should be a powder blue blanket statement. It really
depends on the pace of the writing. 19th century gave us a cornacopia of
colors and discriptions - yawn. Read the tired old Wordsworth(less)'s
Prelude to get what I mean. But even in the 20th century we have writers
who dazzle us with colorful descriptions. One story that comes to mind is
"Gryphon" by Minot (I think). Also I just read some amature fiction, that
was more based on magical realism. Well the indept descriptions of colors
did a great job of slowing the pace and pooling the reader into a moment.
So it mostly depends on pace. But I think the point Scottie is making is
not to used specific colors without intent.
And it also get's boring pretty quickly when every color has an
adjective ahead of it. Instead use some metaphor and similies to mix it
up.
But then, I personally like the simples: blue, red, black. Get on with
the story.
-jason
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Thu Mar 02 2000 - 19:30:22 EST