All posts by Joshua Sampson

Teacher, blogger, reader, and writer. A lover of all things scribbled, new and forgotten.
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From Jaws to Conservation: Benchley’s True Story

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It’s the summertime, so it’s always a good idea to poke through the sunny literature that fills our bookshelves. Where else could I possibly start other than Jaws by Peter Benchley? In this post, we are going to talk about the author, and his history writing novels that are both spirited in action and dense in suspense.

A Benchley Biography

Early Life and Reporting

Benchley was born in New York City on May 8, 1940. His father was a writer and his grandfather was a humorist and critic.

Benchley started his academic career at Phillips Exeter Academy. He would graduate from Harvard University in 1961 and spent a year traveling the world. He elaborates on these travels in his first book, a memoir, titled Time and Ticket that was published in 1964. After spending some time in the Marine Corps, he started as a reporter for The Washington Post and later was a “radio and TV editor” for Newsweek. He was also a junior speech writer for President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Jaws and Other Works

After years of trying to make it as a writer, Benchley finally pitched Jaws, which was published in 1974 and it was met with immediate critical acclaim. The book would inspire one of the most popular horror movies of all time–a film by the same name.

He has stated of his fascination with sharks:

“Always, though, I continued to be interested in sharks and the sea, and my family and I have dived all over the world with wonderful creatures. I have written, narrated and been in dozens of television documentaries about marine life” (Peterbenchley.com)

Other books by Benchley included:

  • The Deep (1974)
  • The Island (1976)
  • Rummies (1989)
  • Beast (1991)
  • White Shark (1994)

Conclusion

Benchley later regretted writing “sensational” books about man-eating water creatures and spent the last decade of his life writing non-fiction as an advocate for conservation. As a conservationist, Benchley spent his later years advocating for sharks and the marine environment. He worked with Wildlife Conservation Society and The Ocean Conservancy.

Peter Benchley passed away in 2006 from pulmonary fibrosis.

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Neoclassical Literature Explained: Swift, Pope, and Their Impact

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What is neoclassical literature, and who wrote during this time?

Two big names out of the Neoclassical movement included Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Yet, there were many more. If you are familiar with the former due to “A Modest Proposal” (1729), then you already have some familiarity. If not, it’s never too late to dig into the satirical elements of the movement.

However, there is much in the movement that it is necessary to explore for a better understanding of literature in general.

What was the neoclassical literature period?

The era in which this period thrived was somewhere between 1660 and 1798. The movement features three important sections, that include the Restoration Period, the Augustan Period, and The Enlightenment Period.

Furthermore, the Neoclassical literature era was marked by an attempt to mimic the Greek and Roman writers of the past. Additionally, writers tried to blend the ideas of enlightenment into the overall writing style of the time. Some sources state that the neoclassical movement in literature was based on these past ideals and skepticism, which took a stern look at societal norms of the time.

With it, came a great deal of satire.

Important Works and Themes

Some works that popped up during this time included The Dunciad by Alexander Pope. He published this anonymously, as it was an unsavory look at his critics. There was also Gulliver’s Travels by Johnathan Swift, which satirized society at large and the inconsistencies in what the norms and mores were espoused.

The neoclassical movement was also the time of wit and cynicism. The writing reached more people, which was great for the down-trodden because education–a factor in reformation–became a reality. As such, themes of social needs and the belief in society, religion, and government were important aspects in published works. As some sources stated, the literature of the time featured “common sense, order, accuracy, and structure,” and showed humanity as “flawed and more human.”

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The Influence of the English Renaissance on Modern Writing

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The English Renaissance is exactly what it sounds like. It was a renaissance that included many English authors. These authors were extremely important based on their own merit, but would remain staples in classic literature. After years of reading literature being relegated to the Church, authors began to engage in a large amount of literary work. The renaissance also featured a view of man in the in image of God, which created an optimistic outlook of humanity. Much like other renaissances, the English Renaissance left an indelible mark on history and the future of the written word.

What was the English Literary Renaissance?

To begin, there are a variety of periods related to the literary renaissance, which goes back as far as the early 14th century. However, the specific period we are looking at ranges from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. Here, we have what is known as the English Renaissance. The renaissance began in Italy and marked a change from feudalism to a more modern viewpoint. The ideals espoused during this period included humanism, singular themes, individualism, and continued religious themes.

Furthermore, scientific inquiry pushed an interest in different aspects of politics and philosophy. Not to mention, the exploration of the New World broadened horizons for many writers and artists. Such innovations included the sonnet, blank verse, and prose essays. Alongside written and printed words, there was also the emphasis on English drama with public theaters and works being presented in public spaces.

In addition to this, some really important things were happening during this period, including the invention of the Gutenberg printing press. Within the literature itself, there was a stronger focus on “man” as a being who deserves self-respect. “During the 14th century, a cultural movement called humanism began to gain momentum in Italy,” states History. “Among its many principles, humanism promoted the idea that man was the center of his own universe, and people should embrace human achievements in education, classical arts, literature and science.”

These were just some of the fundamental changes occurring, but keep in mind that humanity was coming out of the Dark Ages and technology was improving—so people’s attitudes erred on the side of the world welcoming a brighter future.

Impact on Reading, Writing, and Literature

Shakespeare might be the most important person to discuss in this section, as he (and his contemporary Christopher Marlowe), shaped literature through storytelling. Shakespeare contributed so much work, from Romeo and Juliet to Hamlet and Macbeth. He also contributed the creation of the Globe Theatre, where new works could be shown.

Some of the Important Writers and Their Works

William Shakespeare (1564-1616):

Shakespeare contributed immensely to literature with such works as Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet.

Christopher Marlowe

Marlowe wrote influential works including Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great.

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser developed some innovative poetry, including the Spenserian stanza, and wrote The Faerie Queene and Amoretti.

Ben Jonson

Ben Johnson experimented in satire and riffed on the comedy of manners in English dramas. He wrote Volpone, and The Alchemist.

John Donne

Donne wrote in the realms of metaphysical poetry and wrote “The Flea” and “Holy Sonnets.”

Blog, Writing Craft

Joined Together: The Interplay of Reading and Writing Skills

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These days, we know reading and writing go together like peas and carrots, but that was not always the case. In fact, some years ago, both reading and writing were taught independent of each other. This is because the prevailing thought was that one learns to “read” before students learn to “write.” However, we now know that both reading and writing work together in a reciprocal process. Both processes do not work one after the other. This encourages a more graceful and gradual learning of concepts. While these topics are are typically difficult for humans to overcome, understanding how reading and writing as a reciprocal process works eases the burden of knowledge .

What We Know About Reading and Writing

As we know now, reading affects writing and writing affects reading. Reading instruction works when there is writing actively taking place alongside it in a process. Research indicates that when young people read a lot, their writing becomes more refined. And, their skills in both departments increase. As long as students are completing both processes together.

Moreover, children who study many facets of reading–the conventions of reading–become more aware of the concepts of writing. For example, writing in an unfamiliar genre for students, like mystery, can give kids and adults the skills they need to tackle reading genres they don’t understand. For example, if you read a mystery novel, like The Westing Game, writing one becomes that much easier. This is true because you now have a mentor text to refer back to when writing.

As James Patrick writes in “The Reciprocal Relationship of Reading and Writing,” the processes involved in reading and writing complement one another deliberately and effectively. They work as one to improve both skills by utilizing one subject as a source while taking part in the other. Writing, in this instance, can take the form of emulation, or it can excel as a mode of immersion.

“This path to literacy instruction requires a fluid school schedule instead of one that separates reading and online writing courses into different blocks in the school day,” he writes.

With that said, as educators and learners, we can’t separate the two ideas from one another. They both positively effect each other, therefore that must be the focus for engagement. Teaching the ideas of reading and writing needs to be done in a seamless way to allow an ardent approach to both subjects. The adverse may be to suggest that humans learn these processes in a linearly–and that seems to be false.

Why is the Reciprocal Process Important?

Reading is hard. Even as someone who enjoys reading, they have to find time for it and they have to be patient. For people who don’t like reading, that’s exponentially more difficult. The same thing goes for writing. For those who love writing,, that doesn’t mean anything necessarily, because they similarly have to find the time to write. And they have to be patient, which is completely daunting to someone who struggles with writing.

As Patrick states: “Early literacy instructors see great gains when employing reciprocal instruction.” While it can be said that teaching a child a new skill is more effective than teaching an older person, it is still helpful to understand this process. Even if you are an experienced writer, these ideas can help. Knowing that reading effects writing and writing effects reading may encourage you to pick up that book you’ve been putting off. Or, maybe it will encourage you to spend more time on that journal you don’t write in anymore. In summation, if we If we want to be better writers, we have to be better readers, and vice versa. Both work together to make successful readers and writers.

Blog, Literary Bios

The Life and Works of Robert Penn Warren

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At the end of his life, Robert Penn Warren was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet who had contributed much to literature. He had contributed realistic-story telling and excellent poetry in his lifetime. He also held the esteemed title of Poet Laureate. Throughout his life, he endeavored to explore literature and poetry through a keen sense of understanding of conventions and literary criticism.

History

Warren’s Younger Years

Warren was born in 1905 in Guthrie, Kentucky. He attended Vanderbilt University and become associated with a group of writers known as the Fugitives. These writers included John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate. This group assisted with the movement known as New Criticism, a literary study that focused on close reading and textual analysis.

” … may of the Fugitives’ discussions focused on poetry and critical theory, Warren’s favorite subjects at the time,” states Poetry Foundation.

He graduated in 1925 and went on teach as a graduate student at the University and received his M.A. in 1927. He would later attend the New College at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. His background in academia, literature, and poetry would inform the rest of his career through award-winning works and pioneering criticism strategies.

Literary Years and Publications

Warren wrote many books, including World Enough and Time, The Circus in the Attic, and All the King’s Men, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. It is considered a classic of American literature. As mentioned, Warren was also an accomplished literary critic and co-authored the text Understanding Poetry in 1938. His book features themes of power and corruption, and morality and American history.

also won the Pulitzer prize with the poetry collection Now and Then. Later, he again won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1958 and 1979. He was also named Poet Laureate of the United States in 1986. Sources write that Penn’s verse was “rooted in his Southern heritage” and “grapples with themes of history, memory, and individual responsibility.”

Robert Penn Warren passed away on Sept. 15, 1989.

Here’s a list of his novels in order:

  • Night Rider (1939)
  • At Heaven’s Gate (1943)
  • All the King’s Men (1946)
  • World Enough and Time (1950)
  • Band of Angels (1955)
  • The Cave (1959)
  • Flood (1964)
  • Meet Me In The Green Glen (1974)
  • A Place to Come To (1977)
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The Importance of New Historicism in Literary Criticism

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Critical examination is important in both academic and private realms. In order to competently engage with criticism, we often have to employ a lens. And there are many of them in academia. New Historicism, for instance, is just one of these multitudes. While there are no “correct” ways to critique, I think there are lenses that are more commonly implemented. In this way, New Historicism is common, but it is also an extremely important lens for critical examination.

How Do We Define New Historicism?

To begin, New Historicism came out of the reinterpretations of criticism in the 1980s. This included authors like Michel Foucault and Stephen Greenblatt. This form of criticism moved away from the “text-centered” application of earlier disciplines. These earlier critiquing methodologies include Formalism and New Criticism. Meanwhile, New Historicism embraced a text’s social and political messages.

This is also opposed to New Critics, who wanted to view art without interference from the writer. Nevertheless, the New Historicist attempts to look at art by examining all of the social and cultural events around a text. There is little room for subjective and objective takes. Literature and history influence each other in meaningful and equal ways, in this case.

Some things New Historicists look for include:

  • power dynamics
  • ideology
  • oral and written discourse

Why is this Lens important?

New Historicism give us a way to view a text alongside primary and secondary sources. The context of the text is combined with the text itself. That is to say, both historical documents and literature are weighed equally in analyses. This may include an old treatise compared to a writing of the time. How do they reflect each other? Meanwhile, New Historicists look at how literature expresses itself to power structures and social control. This gives us insight into how literature has been shaped through the dominate actors of our time.

As stated, New Historicists examine the salient aspects of a books historical context. This is important especially if you consider the myriad of books written with history, but also books that are influenced by historical elements or that can be examined by its relation to history. Greenblatt’s Learning to Curse features New Historicist examination between Shakespeare’s The Tempest and language and identity.

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Close Reading and New Criticism: An In-Depth Exploration

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New Criticism is a critical look at a piece of art’s form and structure, and it is another form of literary analysis. Whether that be a painting or a piece of music, it’s all about looking at the conventions of the work itself. Much of this is in the this particular criticism’s philosophy. For the purposes of this post, we will look at New Criticism and its influence on texts across literary history.

What is New Criticism?

New Criticism is a literary approach that analyzes a text independently of external influences. W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley developed introduced this concept.

In other words, the reader, the context, and the author mean nothing to the analysis. New Critics reject the erroneous belief that a text’s meaning must be connected to an author’s intention. Essentially, New Critics were looking at the book itself, alone and by itself, for meaning. The author is irrelevant.

In breaking down dates for the relevancy of this particular style of criticism, we can safely say that it was popular between 1941 and the late 1960s. Literary figures such as T.S. Eliot, for instance, made a contribution to New Criticism with his works. These works include “Tradition and the Individual Talent” in 1917 and the “Hamlet and His Problems” in 1919.

Why Does this Critical Lens Matter?

New Criticism is a form of close reading. Close reading allows the critic to examine the text without all the other baggage that comes with a novel. This includes its history or the author’s or the reader’s opinion on the subject matter. This type of criticism stood against the critics at the time, who focused on social context. Similarly, it pushed back against historical criticism and biographical criticism. New Critics, meanwhile, appealed to the book as an independent force they could analyze based on its very text features.

Furthermore, New Criticism examines the story elements, syntactical considerations, and poetic elements of a novel or piece of writing. For example, an author my investigate a text’s meter, theme, imagery, metaphor, plot, characters, or anything else that makes it tick. Through close reading, critics reveal the text to be a product of its own construction. It is the “careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text,” in order to derive meaning.

Conclusion

In conclusion, New Criticism propagates the idea that critics can derive meaning from formal elements of a text rather than the contexts surrounding the text itself. New Criticism is a way to analyze aspects of a text, or the conventions, through sustained reading that disregards an author’s authority, the reader’s presuppositions, and the social history of the text itself. In this way, the text is front and center.

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Daniel Defoe: Progenitor of the Modern Novel

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Daniel Defoe is recognized as one of England’s first novelists. And, rightfully so, because to his credit, he wrote one of the most influential books ever penned. He also wasn’t afraid to shy away from controversy with his political leanings. Both long and short confrontational and epic pieces worked for Defoe.

Life of Daniel Defoe

Early years

Defoe was born in England in 1660 to a noncomformist, dissenting tallow chandler, who sent his son to an academy in Newington Green. There, it is said, that Defoe developed a very deliberate and easy style due to the instruction of the Reverend Charles Morton. Morton focused on the works of Puritan preacher John Bunyan and writings from the Bible. This laid back style would come to aid Defoe later in his life as he crafted fiction that is both universally appealing and not too dense.

He eventually went to pursue a career in trade and tried a few different business ventures. Though he wanted to establish himself as a young businessmen, he still experienced multiple bankruptcies, and he was even imprisoned for debt.

Merchant and Political Activism

Defoe began writing political pamphlets to speak out against Catholic James II and various other governmental grievances. He was thrown in prison for writing the political pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church. His crime: seditious libel. This particular text was considered a crime for its satirical elements and pointed aggression.

Afterward, he gained the recognition and empathy from the public for his poem “Humn to the Pillory.” After a variety of political pamphlets were produced and his publication The Review was lauded, he began writing novels. He soon came to find that the years drafting political dialogue lent itself to fiction.

Defoe’s Contribution to Literature and Death

Defoe wrote a great deal in his novel-writing years. He produced many classics of literature that are still interpreted and dissected today.

Here’s a list:

  • Robinson Crusoe (1719)
  • A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
  • Moll Flanders (1722)
  • Roxana (1724)
  • The Storm
  • The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

While Crusoe seemed to define his career, he still wrote a great many memorable stories. He is frequently referred to as a realist writer, and a pioneer of the modern novel. His use of adventure and depth of description created worlds for readers. Much like Thackeray or Dickens, Defoe had a way with conjuring worlds filled with realistic plots, settings, and characters. He died in 1731.

In a fitting manner of his thoughts on living, he writes, contemplatively, in Robinson Crusoe, the following:

“I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted … and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Blog, Literary Bios

Exploring William Makepeace Thackeray’s Satirical Genius

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Satire and the realist movement go hand-in-hand, considering Charles Dickens did it so well across multiple novels. Meanwhile, William Makepeace Thackeray was also behind the curtain, churning out masterpieces of realism and satire. Yet, through all of his writing, he is primarily known for one piece of fiction: Vanity Fair. In this post, we will explore his life and times.

Thackeray’s Early Life and Education

Thackeray was born in Calcutta in 1811. After the death of his father, who succumbed to fever in 1815, he moved back to England for education. His mother joined the young Thackeray five years later after she remarried. There, Thackeray attended private schools and Charterhouse. These experiences had a lasting, negative effect on him due to the sterile and abusive environment. A life in academia was not in his future; though he later attended Cambridge, he dropped out of the college partway through.

Meanwhile, his extensive travels and knowledge of British society abroad had a profound impact on his opinions of Britain and its culture. As many biographers have pointed out, while Thackeray did not intimately know Calcutta, the setting of India appeared in many of his novels. Using his characteristic wit, he delivered a scathing critique of British society and its hypocrisy (Watt).

Thackeray’s Writings and Later Years

Thackeray spent some time writing as a freelance journalist and submitted to Punch and The Times, among other publications. He also wrote travel books, including The Paris Sketch Book (1840) and From Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1844). Though these books were unsigned or under a pseudonym, Thackeray spent much of his writing life refining his skills as a realist author, focusing on realistic portrayals of life.

As previously mentioned, he is well-known for one novel in particular: Vanity Fair. It was serialized from 1847-1848. The novel satirized British society through the lens of the immoral Becky Sharp and the milquetoast Amelia Sedley. In the novel, both women attempt to ascend the social ladder, but are met with “human frailties” and a candid examination of “the human condition.”

Thackeray’s ability as a realist author shines through here. Some sources have argued that his literary skill aligned with his talent for crafting realistic characters.

“The power of Thackeray’s portrayal of cynical reason is that within the tradition of the English novel, with its vaguely reformist hopes, expressions of balked agency are rare enough to be as explosive as revolutions,” writes one companion guide. “It is important that the most self-aware characters in his major novels, the characters most capable of seeing their place in the system and articulating their helplessness within it, their coerced participation, are women. Never the valorized women … but the misfit women …”

Later in his life, William Makepeace Thackeray spent his time writing poetry. He passed away on Dec. 24, 1863.

Works Cited

“Vanity Fair.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Vanity-Fair-novel. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025.

Watt, Ian, editor. The Cambridge Companion to English Novelists. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

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The Art of Procatalepsis: Defend Your Arguments in Advance

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When you start digging into literature, you start finding a lot of Greek words. the Greeks had a significant impact on language for multiple reasons. They were certainly cultured and used one of the first alphabets. In this post, we are going to analyze one of these words, specifically “procatalepsis.” It holds significant rhetorical value.

Procatalepsis Defined

Word Origin

To begin, the word “procatalepsis” originates from the Greek origin of “prokatalepsis” which combines the prefix “pro,” (“in advance”) and the suffix “katalepsis” (“to seize” or “to grasp”). In this way, one is “grasping” an idea “in advance.”

Procatalepsis In Practical Application

Procatalepsis is a “prebuttal” of sorts. It is a strategy that allows a speaker to anticipate and address objections before they are raised. That is, if two people are having a debate, one person would respond to the coming objections by saying them first within their argument.

This is a useful tactic for a few reasons. The first is that it offers a preemptive defense as to your main points and thesis. for an audience, this means you’ve given a lot of thought to your topic and are able to defend it completely. The second is that it builds credibility in you as a writer. The Greeks call this “ethos,” or how people perceive whether you are reliable or not. If the audience believe you are trustworthy, then you are more likely to get your point across.

Takeaways Regarding Procatalepsis

Procatalepsis is similar to a counterarguments section of an essay. Here, you anticipate objections yourself, and you generate counterarguments to defend your topic. As you write your essay, you are keeping in mind the things people may say against you. The counterargument section allows you to address these criticisms without ever having to hear them.

Later, after you’ve heard those arguments–or new ones–against your own (perhaps on the debate stage), you can then refine your argument by going back through your essay and change your approach.

For additional information, Harvard University has a great section on counterarguments in their Writing Center.

Blog, Writing Craft

Mastering Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs in English

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Many people struggle with the difference between homonyms, homophones, and homographs. It’s not too much to say that the English language is difficult. But, hopefully, today we can learn to distinguish between each of them and look at the similarities and differences between each.

What are Homonyms?

A homonym is a blanket statement that describes both homophones and homographs, which might be the reason it has caused confusion on more than a few occasions. We can look at homonyms as a blanket term. It covers the two other terms on this list.

As defined, homonyms are words with different meanings but can spelled or pronounced in different ways. Thus, this is the blanket meaning I was talking about, and we can stack this term at the top of our understanding.

What are Homophones?

The first type of homonym is a homophone. Homophones sound alike but have different spellings. For example: to, too, two. But, in a more academic mindset, we can look at homophones as two or more words that differ in their meaning and spelling but are pronounced the same.

The sound is there with a homophone, but the meaning is not.

Other examples include:

  • Night – Knight
  • Not – Knot
  • New – Knew

What are Homographs?

The second type of homonym is a homograph. Homographs are spelled the same but they have different meanings. “Graph,” the root word in homograph, in this instance, means a chart that is written on a page or drawn, so we know these words are written the same.

Let’s just focus on that for a moment.

To Lead (long e sound) someone is to direct someone or to show them the way. Lead (with the short e sound), meanwhile, is just a heavy piece of metal. Lead is spelled the same in both instances but they both have different meanings. In this way, they are spelled alike but they sound different.

Other examples include:

  • Bow (as in bend) and Bow (as in an archer’s bow)
  • Bass (as in the fish) and Bass (as in the instrument)
  • Present (as in right now) and Present (as in a gift for someone)

Conclusion

Try to look at it this way:

You go to sleep at night and throw a blanket over yourself. The blanket is the homonym and covers your body and your legs.

Your body is a homophone and your legs are the homograph. Now you have a visual representation. You just have to remember that homophones are to, too, and two, while homographs are words that are spelled and sound the same but have different meanings, like bow and bow.

If you can master these principles, then you can start mastering your own writing voice as well!

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Emulation and Immersion: Key to Writing Voice

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As a short story and novel dabbler, I often wonder how my voice can come through in some sections of a story and then totally fall flat in others. Am I not being true to myself? Am I not tapping into the muse? Are the writing gods forsaking me? What other myths can I use to convince myself there is an easy track to developing my own voice as a writer? For this post, I am going to look at what is typically recommended for writers to develop a distinctive writing voice.

Developing Your Voice as a Writer

Before we get there, we should get a concrete sense of what writing voice is in a theoretical sense. In so many ways, you want to be able to engage with the text you are writing by developing languages associated with that style of writing. Through that, you come up with a specialized language and then a more universal and specific language. In other words, know your genre and know your tone. If you can lock down the language associated with a particular topic, then your voice becomes apparent.

Yet, we can go even farther than that and explore a few traditional methods of developing voice. There are a few main recommendations I see often, and they fall into two categories:

  • Emulation
  • Immersion

Emulation

Emulation is the focus of writing using the style of an author you like each time you sit down to write with the sole purpose of taking the things you enjoy from their style. An example of this would be your 13-year-old self sitting at a desk and trying to write a pulp story because you think the author’s diction and syntax is interesting.

By doing this, you are practicing another author’s tone in order to perfect your own. Allegedly, Hunter S. Thompson engaged with this sort of writing technique by emulating Faulkner.

Another example would be a musician listening to a record and playing the music back. Eventually, the idea is that the musician (or writer in this case) will adopt the nuances of the person they are emulating. Then, that will mesh with an existing skill set (or other emulations) to create a new style of writing wholly original to the author.

Other writers have talked about this very thing.

Immersion

Immersion is literally just a writer focusing on a style and in a genre for a sustained amount of time until a style grows from trial and error. That is, if you read and write in sci-fi for long enough, you will adopt a style that is beneficial to explain science fiction ideas or that adopts a voice you are comfortable with.

I like to think of pulp writers during the turn of the 1900s. You could tell there were a lot of good writers there, but you could also tell a lot of them were adopting a style befitting a pulp writer (a style beneficial to quickly cranking out prose for money). This goes for any other genre of writing as well.

Other Ideas Regarding Voice

There are other ways and explanations, too. Writer Leah McClellan states that a writer’s voice is a combination of “Attitude, tone, and personal style.”

“Attitude is about emotion, values, and beliefs,” she writes. “ … Tone of voice in your writing is similar to tone of voice while talking … it’s not what you say—the facts—but how you say it (or write it).”

Furthermore, personal style are all of the little choices one makes when writing. These choices include diction, syntax, structure, mood, tone, and so much more. I think these are definitely fair points and if it’s beneficial for you to think of writing as an extended metaphor, I think you will find her advice useful.

Final Thoughts on Writing Voice

Writing is a skill that you have to practice. You have to learn the rules and use them to the best of your ability, and outside of the application of prescriptive grammar, you have to practice conveying a message to people who probably understand descriptive grammar. That isn’t to say that prescriptive grammar is the right approach or the be-all and end-all. I’m also not saying because we live in descriptive grammar bubbles online that we should simply throw out the rules.

However, you as a writer have to start with the mechanics and then learn how to break the rules. This will extend your writing in more digestible ways and impact your audience awareness. In other words, if you have a new and unique style, can you explain why it works without saying “It just does.” You also don’t have to say that it comes from some special place from beyond the pale.

Rationale does wonders for development and progression.

With that being said, you also have to dispel the myths of writing, which include things like “writing is a God-given gift,” “writers are depressed geniuses,” “substance abuse makes writing better,” or “you need a degree in writing to be a writer.” Similarly, you can implement poetic strategies to engage your readers more and spice up your writing.

All of these ideas inhibit creativity and get in the way of style and voice, and these myths perpetuate crappy narratives about an otherwise normal skill that needs to be practiced and honed if one wants it to develop into something better—like a piece of writing with an original voice.

Blog, Literary Bios

Author Saul Bellow: Cynicism, Journalism, and Insight

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Journalism and a cynical eye go together well. Just check out Saul Bellow. Bellow’s own experience as a journalist, and a cynical one at that, can be the doorway for readers and writers to see how one’s background concretely influences their work. If you are interested in this type of writing then you would probably enjoy Humboldt’s Gift, The Adventures of Augie March, and Dangling Man. Probably part of the attraction to his writing stems from my own experience as a journalist, which provides some relationship to his time as a correspondent.

Saul Bellow’s History in Writing

Youth

Saul Bellow was born in a suburb of Montreal, Quebec, known as Lachine on June 10, 1915. He was the son and fourth child or Russian-Jewish immigrants, and his father’s talent “was for failure” (PBS). At the age of nine, his parents moved him to Chicago where he and his family lived without citizenship. He was, according to his father and brother, as the “schmuck with a pen,” as he had hopes for academia rather than the family coal business.

College and Early Writings

Eventually, he attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern University and graduated in 1937. Afterward, he attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin. During World War II, he served in the Merchant Marines. Similarly, Ralph Ellison also served in the Merchant Marines and wrote about topics in a similar cynical manner.

Bellow wrote Dangling Man in 1944. The novel detailed the life of an aimless man in America during wartime. The novel did very well with critics, which helped put Bellow on the map.

Award-Winning Novelist

Bellow wrote his biggest hit in 1953 with The Adventures of Augie March. He won the National Book Award for fiction in 1954 for its achievement. In 1964, Bellow wrote Herzog, which explored intellectualism, relationship, and a crisis of the soul.

Perhaps Bellow’s greatest accomplishment was receiving the Nobel Prize for literature in 1976 for his book Humboldt’s Gift (1975), in which he wrote about materialist society in Chicago. In the 1980s, Bellow published many works, from The Dean’s December (1982) to More Die of Heartbreak (1987).

Playwright and Short Story Author

Along with being a novelist, Bellow was also a playwright. He wrote three short plays and The Last Analysis. He also wrote short stories, and his work appeared in Partisan Review, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, and Playboy. Likewise, he taught at Bard College, Princeton University, and the University of Minnesota. Toward the end of his life, he served as a war correspondent for Newsday during the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1967.

Bellow died on April 5, 2005.

Works Cited

“Saul Bellow Biography and Life Timeline.” American Masters – PBS, URL: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/saul-bellow-biography-and-life-timeline/24349/.

“Saul Bellow. Goodreads. Web. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4391.Saul_Bellow

“Saul Bellow.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saul-Bellow.

“Humboldt’s Gift.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt%27s_Gift.

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Myth vs Legend vs Tall Tale: What Sets Them Apart?

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Zeus, The Headless Horseman, Paul Bunyan, and Bigfoot all share some commonalities. Clearly, there are supernatural and fantastical elements in each of their stories, but how do myths, legends, and tall tales differ? And, how can we distinguish between them? It becomes much easier to understand these differences if you consider the context and typical usage of each term. In this post we will understand how each of these terms share similarities and differences.

What is a Folklore?

Folklore is an umbrella term that encompasses all oral tradition. If you can think of a story that you’ve heard passed down from your great-grandfather, to your grandfather, to your father, and now down to you, then you have encountered folklore. The titans, King Arthur, Nessie, and the Slender Man are all forms of folklore. They are cultural, they are stories, and they are passed down. It’s as simple as that.

What is a Myth?

The word “myth” is derived from the Greek word “mythos.” This means “story.” Mythological stories are rooted in religion or folkloric beliefs and they help define the origin of a culture.

As one source states: “… myths can be used to demystify a supernatural or unresolved event. Myths present reality in a sensational way, often using creatures and gods.” For instance, if one hears a story about the origin of a holiday tradition—say, the story of Old St. Nick—they are probably hearing a myth because Santa Claus is a “sensational,” god-like creature who surreptitiously visits homes on Christmas Eve and leaves gifts for children. This explanation clarifies Christmas for younger folks and is passed down from parents as well.

Mythic stories reflect society’s attempts to understand how things in the world came to exist, even though they incorporate supernatural elements. That’s why they typically feature nonhuman characters doing things that could be construed as supernatural. For a better understanding, think about the Greek gods and all the stories and movies you’ve heard or watched that detail their exploits and existence. Myths = Mt. Olympus.

What is a Legend?

Much of people’s confusion between myths and legends come from their similarities. Legends share the same qualities as myths. These include supernatural elements, unbelievable characters or monsters, first-hand accounts, etc. Yet, the major difference is that they come from the recent past, have historical roots, and are passed from one generation to the next.

Robin Hood and King Arthur fit the mold of a legend because they come from the semi-recent past. They aren’t some far off idea that is foggy in time. We can see them and their relationship to our own lives. Legends also have historical connections (they could be real), and they people have passed them down through oral, visual, and textual mediums. It should go without saying, but legends often walk a careful balance between reality and fiction.

To better understand this, think about Bigfoot, or more accurately, think about The Legend of Bigfoot. We aren’t entirely sure what the cryptid looks like (its big and hairy at least), and it only gained popularity relatively recently in the late ’60s or early ’70s. However, the Bigfoot story is now very popular. As such, people still pass their own stories down from one generation to the next.

What are Tall Tales?

Tall Tales are those wacky stories you remember form when you were a kid. They tell something about an immediate culture’s history or how something came to be in the world. Likewise, cultures preserve these stories through cultural traditions like music, pictures, interpretations, and more.

When you think about the stories of Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed, then you have some idea of a Tall Tale. They are like sagas that feature protagonists completing tasks that shape the world as we know it. Did they really do the things those stories said they did? Well, probably not, but those stories do help us understand the world around us.

Moreover, much like legends and myths, society passes down tall tales from generation to generation through a variety of mediums. Tall tales often feature conflicts resolved in some extraordinary way. For instance, Johnny Appleseed saw a lack of apple trees, therefore he spread them across the entire country on foot. either through strength, ingenuity, or sheer gumption. Paul Bunyan battling Babe the Big Blue Ox is one of these stories. At first, they are enemies, but this changes after they exhaust each other with their fighting. As it relates to tall tales, both are supernatural, and their giant sizes are responsible for shaping parts of U.S. geography, at least according to the story.

Remembering Folklore, Myth, Legend, and Tall Tales

The easiest thing to remember is that folklore is an umbrella term. Therefore, myths, legends, and tall tales form underneath this term and have their own nuances. Regardless of their differences, myths, legends, and tall tales serve a continued purpose of understanding. Myths, legends, and tall tales (all of folklore for that matter) continue to be important to society for their ability to help show us the world we live in through different lenses.

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Scandal, Truth, and Literature: The World of Émile Zola

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Writer Emile Zola was a controversial figure in his lifetime. His trial for libel and his flight to England to avoid imprisonment further cements his difficult relationship with those in power. However, it can be said of such radicals that drawing the ire of authority means you may be shedding light on a vulnerable subject. Zola, ever the supporter of the oppressed, fought throughout his life to defy injustice.

Who Was Emile Zola?

Early Life and The Dreyfus Affair

Zola was born on April 2, 1840. He was a French novelist, critic, and politically-minded journalist. He was also a naturalist thinker and writer who was considered the father of the movement.

Zola’s father died early, and he and his mother struggled financially. These struggles, much like Charles Dickens, may have been the impetus for his socially forward writings.

He played an important role in the Dreyfus Affair as well. He wrote a famous open letter entitled “J’Accuse” that defended Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer accused of treason by the French Army. His “intervention” certainly helped the officer’s case and has stood as a testament to human rights advocacy for many years.

Zola’s Literary Works

Zola’s biggest claim to fame included writing a 20-novel series titled “Les Rougon-Macquart.” The series detailed the interactions between the Rougon and Macquarts families. The family lived during the Second French Empire, and it explored how upbringing shapes people in social classes.

Moreover, and most famously, he wrote La Bete Humaine, which is also known as The Human Beast. The story follows a murderous man named Jacques Lantier who has the urge to kill women due to his family’s history with insanity. After becoming embroiled in a web of sex and deceit, Jacques acts out on his inhibitions.

Zola died in a carbon monoxide accident at his home in 1902. Much like his novels and their dark themes, his story may have ended in foul play.

Legacy of Emile Zola

Zola’s lasting impression can best be summed up by discussing social justice. His unwavering belief in human advocacy and acknowledging the dark side of humanity benefited those he knew. While he lived a controversial life, he contributed a positive impact with his writing and use of his naturalistic ideas.