Writing like Lemony
Maybe it's a good thing I don't own the entire Series of Unfortunate Events. I'd probably spend too much time trying to do an ASoUE marathon (which I think I've done before, actually). And then when I finish, I'd want to check back on previous books (because of all the little details and awesome stuff Lemony Snicket puts in) and possibly read the entire series again (because that's what happens with a thirteen-book series).
The reason I mention this is because I recently decided to reread The End. And today, in my AP Composition & Language class, I wrote an essay about Wendell Berry's "Faustian Economics." In my body paragraphs, I got some very...odd phrases that could only have been influenced by Lemony.
For example, in his essay, Berry makes a distinction between the word "limit" and the word "confinement." That was an important point to understand, as both words pretty much have the same denotation, which I expanded on by writing something along the lines of:
Both words convey the meaning of keeping us from attaining something more, such as in the sentences "We had a limit to the number of pages we could write for our research paper" and "The teacher confined us to a ten-page maximum."
After reading that over a few times, I was struck by how much it resembled that chapter in The End when Lemony goes on about words that have two meanings (e.g. bear, hard, wool). And guess what? I liked how the sentences turned out. It had a teeny little bit (and I mean very teeny) of that witty edge that I love so much about Lemony's writing.
I added on to that with the following:
The word "limit" means something that keeps us from doing something we are incapable of doing, such as going a certain number of days without food and drink. On the other hand, "confinement" means something that keeps us from doing something we can do, such as locking someone up in a room to keep him from eating.
I realize this is rather poorly written, and I sincerely hope my memory isn't remembering the exact phrasing because I don't want to have written it like that on my essay. But a shade of this is so Lemony.
Anyway, I hope my teacher has the same sense of humor Lemony Snicket does.
The reason I mention this is because I recently decided to reread The End. And today, in my AP Composition & Language class, I wrote an essay about Wendell Berry's "Faustian Economics." In my body paragraphs, I got some very...odd phrases that could only have been influenced by Lemony.
For example, in his essay, Berry makes a distinction between the word "limit" and the word "confinement." That was an important point to understand, as both words pretty much have the same denotation, which I expanded on by writing something along the lines of:
Both words convey the meaning of keeping us from attaining something more, such as in the sentences "We had a limit to the number of pages we could write for our research paper" and "The teacher confined us to a ten-page maximum."
After reading that over a few times, I was struck by how much it resembled that chapter in The End when Lemony goes on about words that have two meanings (e.g. bear, hard, wool). And guess what? I liked how the sentences turned out. It had a teeny little bit (and I mean very teeny) of that witty edge that I love so much about Lemony's writing.
I added on to that with the following:
The word "limit" means something that keeps us from doing something we are incapable of doing, such as going a certain number of days without food and drink. On the other hand, "confinement" means something that keeps us from doing something we can do, such as locking someone up in a room to keep him from eating.
I realize this is rather poorly written, and I sincerely hope my memory isn't remembering the exact phrasing because I don't want to have written it like that on my essay. But a shade of this is so Lemony.
Anyway, I hope my teacher has the same sense of humor Lemony Snicket does.