Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "tone"
Do You Have an Ear for Literature?
I spent twenty-six years in the tenth grade, twenty-seven if you count the year I was actually a sophomore. In that time, I tried very hard to make reading a good thing for my students, offering variety, encouragement, and gentle nudges on to the next reading level. One of the things I learned is that the "ear" for literary excellence is tricky. Age, ability, and inclination all enter into it, and while there are some who have a tin ear for literature, most can develop their sense of "good" literature if they try.
There are three facets of reading. We can teach people to decode words. We can teach them to find the pertinent facts and details as they read. We cannot teach appreciation, but we can develop it, or rather, the reader can, with practice. Life experience, understanding of character, detection of sarcasm, satire, and misdirection are all things that come with reading and discussing literature with others. Teachers have to focus on more than "Did they read the piece?" and "Can they answer the questions at the end of the chapter?" Students might read, might be able to tell you who the main characters are in a piece, but they often have difficulty with the tone if they are tuned in to only decoding and recalling details. They can miss Mark Twain's comedy genius entirely as they fight their way through "My Grandfather's Ram", trying to find the story line.
Appreciation comes from reading a wide variety of works, which to me is what the job of a literature teacher is all about. While we all might know what we LIKE to read, a teacher's job is to help us develop our literary ears, so we have a larger sense of what really good writing is.
There are three facets of reading. We can teach people to decode words. We can teach them to find the pertinent facts and details as they read. We cannot teach appreciation, but we can develop it, or rather, the reader can, with practice. Life experience, understanding of character, detection of sarcasm, satire, and misdirection are all things that come with reading and discussing literature with others. Teachers have to focus on more than "Did they read the piece?" and "Can they answer the questions at the end of the chapter?" Students might read, might be able to tell you who the main characters are in a piece, but they often have difficulty with the tone if they are tuned in to only decoding and recalling details. They can miss Mark Twain's comedy genius entirely as they fight their way through "My Grandfather's Ram", trying to find the story line.
Appreciation comes from reading a wide variety of works, which to me is what the job of a literature teacher is all about. While we all might know what we LIKE to read, a teacher's job is to help us develop our literary ears, so we have a larger sense of what really good writing is.
Now That's Freaky
I had lunch with an author friend recently, and she mentioned that her editor has twice now commented on the mood of her books, which gets darker in bad times and lighter in better times. The editor has never met my friend but accurately identified times when she was dealing with personal tragedy. The books were different than those which came when life was happily humming along.
Wow. Do we know we're revealing so much of ourselves as we write?
I know from studying literature that great authors' works often grow darker as life buffets them around a bit. Twain got much more satirical after the deaths of his wife and daughter. Shakespeare wrote more tragedies as he aged.
What happens to a mystery writer when life takes a downturn? We already write about murder and mayhem, so what can get worse? Apparently, it's the mood of the writing, the sense that maybe life isn't fair after all. The mental condition of the protagonist can change, too. He or she might not expect justice, or at least not full justice.
In case you're thinking of analyzing me, you should know that I wrote for almost ten years before anyone noticed. Some things just now coming to publication were written years ago; others are being written in the present day, with all its attendant troubles. I can't see much difference, though I've had plenty of ups and downs over that time.
It must be considered that an author's mood might have an opposite effect on her writing. If life tramples us into the dirt and we long for happiness, fairness, and justice, we might simply create it where we can, in our books.
Wow. Do we know we're revealing so much of ourselves as we write?
I know from studying literature that great authors' works often grow darker as life buffets them around a bit. Twain got much more satirical after the deaths of his wife and daughter. Shakespeare wrote more tragedies as he aged.
What happens to a mystery writer when life takes a downturn? We already write about murder and mayhem, so what can get worse? Apparently, it's the mood of the writing, the sense that maybe life isn't fair after all. The mental condition of the protagonist can change, too. He or she might not expect justice, or at least not full justice.
In case you're thinking of analyzing me, you should know that I wrote for almost ten years before anyone noticed. Some things just now coming to publication were written years ago; others are being written in the present day, with all its attendant troubles. I can't see much difference, though I've had plenty of ups and downs over that time.
It must be considered that an author's mood might have an opposite effect on her writing. If life tramples us into the dirt and we long for happiness, fairness, and justice, we might simply create it where we can, in our books.
