Christian Living
Larry Lilly's Letter Monday July 11, 2011
I ordered what should be an interesting book by author Cindy Rogers. It’s all about saying things in a way that creates images using humorous contrast that seem preposterous. The book is titled, "Word Magic for Writers."
A few of you will guess who and what I thought of Saturday a week ago as I sat in a less than ideal place, instead of where I wanted to be reading the promo for Cindy's new book. Cindy quoted a line from Maya Angelou and a friend texted me concerning the long anticipated wedding of a mutual friend using Maya's line:
"She stood in front of the altar, shaking like a freshly caught trout."
It is usually said of brides that they are beautiful, gorgeous, so pretty, looked like her mother looked years ago, or even "the veil did her a great service," but to compare the bride to a shaking trout, well that grabbed my attention.
Speakers, writers, teachers are always or should be, looking for a fresh way of stating things. It would be a good idea for families to enter the hunt for sparkling speech. I talked an official the other day concerning a man I have been trying to help and surprised him with, "Well, once you get by his grunts he is reasonably intelligent." And it is true, yet he is perceived as a near quintessential village ...
2 Corinthians 3:12:
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech
Language is the primary form of communication and we use it so much that it is a challenge to think about how to say common things in a little different manner in order to arrest or keep attention, via the page or podium.
Up until fairly recent years using a verse of scripture here and there, perhaps a reference to a task "more frustrating than that of Sisyphus" served the writer/orator well. That technique belongs to yesterday and yesterday really is gone.
Even Paul’s "plainness of speech" stood out from his contemporaries in that it was plain and easy to be understood. It is a fact that Paul could have used $50 words.
One of the reasons the so called "Southern Vernacular" is so effective is the use of humorous metaphors and outrageous statements that communicate great truths and grand ideas with words that are quickly grasped.
"She stood in front of the altar, shaking like a freshly caught trout."
Best I've read in a coon's age.
Larry Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with credit
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