On pure impulse, I decided to prepare a dish of pancakes and fruit--oh what splendid fruit they were!--and the meal almost brought me to tears.
In a hurried fashion, I devoured the stale oat bar laid before me on the table. Twas not very sufficient a meal, said I--venturing down the stairs of my station to the crisp, melancholy air of the morning.
I was running short on time this morning after I snoozed my alarm three times--Kristin was already sitting down to breakfast when I awoke--and I knew not what breakfast I would have time for.
--Could I have, asked I, a piece of your bread for the making of toast?--Kristin quicky obliged, handing over a hearty piece of bread, enabling yself to have a breakfast of peanut butter toast.
While eating my breakfast, I realized there were three kinds of breakfasts:
Non-existent breakfast
Fast breakfast
And of course my breakfast, hearty breakfast, which not many consume such as I do, oatmeal, milk, fruit, and occasionally, juice.
What strike you as specific, distinctive, characteristic elements of the prose style in this novel?
Deadline: Friday (12/4), start of class.
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6 comments:
I find that Sterne loves dashes and commas. He employs them often, as evidenced by these responses. Also, he refrains from using many quotation marks to designate speech. Instead, he prefers to nest it amongst Yorick's own narrative (through the use of the dashes and commas mentioned above).
I think Sterne's choice in being very "stream of consciousness" style (despite that style not emerging until probably after Virginia Woolf) is probably one of the most distinctive voices in his writing. While we discussed on Wednesday that this voice or style for the most part is more "revealing" or "open" than other 18C writers, I think it's overall just a lot more "thoughtless" in the idea that he writes literally what he's thinking.
With this in mind it begs us as readers to look at him in a way that we laugh at him -- he remains mostly oblivious to those around him because as he writes the prose form itself becomes his personal realm of thoughts and vulnerability with perhaps no specific aim other than pouring out his own thoughts.
When I read it it's just kind of a mess and a blur, and I'm never exactly sure at any given moment what is happening/who he's talking to/who's actually in the story. Individual phrases (especially with all those dashes) can be annoying; it seems sometimes like he's going so far out of his way to talk as strangely as possible. What makes it all the more frustrating is that he will occasionally just throw in something perfectly normal and comprehensible, so I know he's capable of writing normally but he's an asshole and he just won't do it. Kind of the same sentiment as when reading Eliot's Wasteland - like Michael said, very "stream of consciousness".
I think it just generally requires more disciplined reading, because looking at the individual phrases now - they aren't all that strange or confusing, but when you're actually reading through it's hard to keep focus the entire time.
The first description of breakfast, touches on the more emotional side of Stern's writing/Yorick's thoughts. We mentioned in class that Yorick seems to be a sensitive man, and while this description might be a little hyperbolic, but does a good job of showing us the sensitive side of Yorick. At the same time, the author still used dashes to insert side thoughts, which is very Sterne-esque
I found that in many instances Sterne is extremely comical when describing the most boring aspect of his day. I find that these descriptions of breakfast have a touch of humor to them and Sterne would have been similar in his writing.
Like Prose, the characteristics are showing dramatic imagery and literally paints a picture with word. I think that the most defining characteristic is that is has not set structure. His sentences are short and really don't end with periods, but rather dashes and commas. It is as though he's writing down whatever thought comes to mind in the very instant of his life.
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