Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Tired of it and just want to present the dang thing

I have been stressing for the last two weeks on the booktalk I have to deliver on Thursday. My talk consisists of combining the clever entries for the Bulwer-Lytton writing contest with three authors that I think have unique writing styles. The three authors I am going to discuss are Elmore Leonard, Chrisopher Moore, and Michael Chabon.

The contest asks people to write, in the most purplish prose possible, the first sentence of a very bad novel. I came up with the idea because I saw that many of the entries used very imaginative language and I could use that as a springboard to discuss writers I think have a personal style. I guess you could say that all truly good novelists have their own style but I think this'll work.

I chose Elmore Leonard because his writing is the least florid you can find out there. Christopher Moore I chose because his style is similar to some of the writing you see in the better Bulwer-Lytton entries, flowery and absurd but with a nice spark of genius. I chose Chabon because he is a genius and he's fun to talk about and his style is similar to Bulwer-Lytton, it's elaborate and purplish at time but he knows when to reel it in and go on with the story.

So there. I think I'm done preparing. I've gotten to the point where I am sick of my topic and just want to present the talk. I usually do better in a speaking setting when I reach the point I am now. I think that means any more preparation would be superfluous. Oh, I'll still study my notes but research is over, bubba.

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