Stuart Aken's Blog, page 298

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Abdicate

Abdicate: verb - castoff, discard; relinquish sovereign power formally; renounce a throne, highoffice, or function.
'When Edward VII decided to abdicate, in order to marryWallis Simpson, he caused a constitutional crisis in Britain and was neverfully forgiven by the rest of the royal family.'
Picture: the picturesque village of Staithes, on the North Yorkshire coast.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Elemental or elementary?

Elemental or elementary? Elemental: adjective- being an element; specifically - existing in the form of an uncombinedchemical element; the basic or essential constituent of something; fundamental,simple, uncomplicated; dealing with the rudiments of something; of, relatingto, or resembling a great force of nature.Elementary: adjective- dealing with the simplest elements or principles of something; relating to anelementary school.So, something elemental is essential or integral to nature,whereas something elementary is fundamental.
'The raging tempest that cast great waves on the shore,tearing up the coastal trees and upending the fishing boats, was elemental.'
'I don't see how you can pretend to be a writer, my friend,when you fail to understand the most elementary rules of grammar.'

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Magic realism

Magic realism: blending fantastic or mythical elements in a matter-of-factway into seemingly realistic fiction. The term magic realism isrelatively recent, being first applied by Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, inthe 1940s, when he recognized this style in much Latin-American literature. Amongthe Latin-American magic realists are Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Amado, JorgeLuis Borges and Isabel Allende.Magic realism is also described as an aesthetic style offiction, which mixes magical elements with the real world. The narrativeexplains such magical elements as real occurrences, presenting them in astraightforward manner that places reality and the fantastical in the samestream of thought. Salman Rushdie famously uses the technique in The SatanicVerses to great effect.

90 Author Interviews Revisited

Listed below are the names of the authors I have interviewedon this blog during the past year. If you click on the author's name, you willarrive at the interview on the blog. They're listed in order of appearance andone or two may be listed twice, because they've come back for more. There's no significance to the colours; just an attempt to separate the names out a bit.
AvrilField-Taylor      Penny Grubb      J.FJenkins      Linda Acaster     KarenWolfe   Madeleine McDonald   KathleenMcKenna     Gwen Morrison   RichardJay Parker      Sasha Petrova      StevenJensen    Stacey Danson      CatherineChisnall      John Pearson      SharonDwyer      Jake Webber  SibelHodge   NickQuantrill      SarahBarnard     Lila Munro      JRussell Rose      BethAnn Buehler      NeilWhite  Valmore DanielsKristalMcKerrington   Linda Swift      ClaudeBouchard      Danielle Thorn  P.J.Dean    Toni V. Sweeney, aka Icy Snow Blackstone      MargaretBlake     J.B. Hendricks     MoniqueMartin  Karen Cantwell       DavidPerlmutter     Rodolfo Pena     AndyFrankham-Allen     Tracey Alley      PhillipChen  Edward Wright     LorraineSears       L.M. Pruitt      L.Anne Carrington  Patricia Rockwell     M.J.Webb   Derek J. Canyon      GeoffreyThorne      SueAnn Jackson      J.E.Taylor      K.J. Rigby       VictoriaRoder  Jesse S. Greever       CatherineCondie      Paul Rudd     LakishaSpletzer      Lyn Fuchs       LauraB. Gshwandtner   Terry Irvin      RuthWheeler Joanne Kerzmann     AlanNayes     Charlene Wilson     AlanNaylor      Poppet   ChristaPolkinhorn        P.I. Barrington     TommyTaylor Wayne Gerard Trotman     SylviaL. Ramsey    Wayne Zurl ShielaStewart      Jean Fullerton     ElenaDorothy Bowman Dewey W. Dempsey  RonnieDauber     Zoe Winters      R.S.Charles Lesley Cookman      PatriciaMitchell Lapidus    Kristie Leigh MaguireElizabethC. Mock     Gary Hoover     HelmyParlente Kasuma Valerie Douglas   ChrisHambleton       Boyd Lemon      IanAlexander Lucinda Brant      LindaAcaster      Anonymous Indian    DeniseVarrico
Last week, 7 July, I interviewed myself here (an oddconcept, but the reasons will be clear if you visit it) – the link isn'tavailable as I write this, because I've scheduled this before the interview isdue to appear. But it can be found in the archive now, if you're interested.Next week, the interview will be with Susan Moody; I thinkyou'll find it worthwhile returning for that one.
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Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Zeal

Zeal: noun – eagerness, ardent interest in pursuit ofsomething; fervour, passion.
'In my epic fantasy, Aglydron is a character who shows greatzeal in his ardent application of the rules rather than the spirit of hisreligion, and causes much suffering as a result.'
Watch out for an author Interview with Susan moody next week.
Picture: just a bunch of Californian Poppies, growing in my back garden.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Economic or economical

Economic or economical: Economic:  adjective- of or relating to economics; relating to, or based on consumption, productionand distribution of goods and services; of or relating to an economy; possessingpractical or industrial significance or uses; affecting material resources; thescience of economics. Economical  adjective- marked by careful, efficient, and prudent use of resources; operatingwith little waste or at a saving; sparing.
So, a person is not generally economic, but it may be thatthe same person uses economic theory and practice to determine the mosteconomical use of resources. Anything that is economical is generally characterisedby saving money or resources.
'The economic indicators all showed that the country's financeswere in serious debt following the disastrous collapse of the banking system atthe hands of greedy and imprudent bankers.'
'Caroline was so economical with the truth that it wasdifficult to give credence to anything she said.'
Picture: a farm nestling in the ripening wheat fields a short walk from my home.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Irony

Irony: noun - a pretenceof ignorance used to entice others into saying things that can then bechallenged; the use of language, normally expressing the opposite, to make somepoint; humorous use of praise to suggest condemnation or contempt. In literature, irony is a device, in which the actualmeaning is hidden or contradicted by the literal meaning of what is said orwritten. In dramatic irony, there is incongruity between what's expected andwhat actually happens. Irony often comes from a resigned awareness of the contrastbetween what is and what should be and is expressed through controlled pathos lackingsentimentality. It's a type of indirection that avoids overt praise or censure,as in the casual irony of statements like, 'Brilliant!' meaning, 'Stupid', or 'Thecomprehensive philanthropy of conservative politics.' meaning 'The absoluteself-serving meanness of conservative politics.'.When used in a none literary fashion, irony is usually called'sarcasm'.There is a pervasive theory amongst Brits that Americanshave no understanding of irony, which probably stems from the British characteristicof self-deprecation contrasted with what the islanders see as the brashself-confidence of the newer country.
'When Brenda referred to the level of intellectual tensionconveyed by the two naked female mud-wrestlers, Bryan was oblivious of her ironyand actually took his eyes off the action in order to agree with her.'
Picture: In the days before Google took over Blogger, I was able to associate posts with free images through a little widget called Zemanta. I might've delighted some of you, disgusted others, with a picture of nude women mud-wrestlers, but you'll have to make do with this picture of a local landscape, taken on a walk just a short distance from my home. I don't think there's any irony here; unless you think otherwise, of course.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Yam

Yam: noun - ediblestarchy tuberous root of plants of the genus Dioscorea, of the familyDioscoreaceae, used as a staple in tropical areas; plant that produces yams;moist and orange-fleshed sweet potato.
'In parts of New Guinea, the yam is used not only as a foodbut also as a measure of wealth and status: the more yams a man has, the greaterhis position in society.'
Picture: Looking north along Cow Dale, near Huggate, East Yorkshire.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Different from or different than

Different from or different than: In British English, andits cousins, you can't follow 'different' with 'than'. Although people use both'to' and 'from', the preferred use is 'from'. Fowler, 'English Usage' doesn't evenmention 'different than', probably because he wasn't aware of it at the time:it is definitely US usage. And, here in Britain, it's generally consideredunacceptable. Things are logically different from one another, and using 'than'after 'different' is regarded as a grammatical blunder.
'The bikini Elle's wearing is different from the one wornby Corinne, but I think that Elle's is better than hers.'
Picture: the North Sea at Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: In medias res

In medias res: Meaning 'into the middle of things', this Latinphrase denotes the literary narrative technique where the story begins at themid-point or even the end, instead of the beginning. Setting, character, andconflict are generally established using flashback and, sometimes, expository dialogueto explain and describe what has happened prior to the opening events. Its mainadvantage is that the story opens with dramatic action instead of beginningwith an explanation and description of the characters and situation. An example is Homer's Odyssey, where we first hear about Odysseus'journey as he's kept captive on Calypso's island. Later, we discover that mostof Odysseus' journey takes place before that point in the narrative. The technique is used fairly widely in modern literature as a device tohook the attention of readers who might otherwise be impatient enough todiscard a good story before it has really begun.
9 July 1911: Mervyn Peake, author of Gormenghast, born.
Picture: Nettle Dale, near Huggate, East Yorkshire.