What's in a Phrase?
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Speech Patterns That Join Them
Annie Proulx, in “Brokeback Mountain,” uses the shape and sounds of speech to establish her characters' personalities.
Apr 16
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Casey Houser
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Speech Patterns That Join Them
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Feel, We're In a Hurry
In “The Mexican Girl,” Jack Kerouac's prose mirrors the hurried, exciting lives of his characters.
Apr 9
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Casey Houser
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Feel, We're In a Hurry
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Scattered Bids for Control
In “Stalker,” Robert Reed lets the strangeness of his text heighten the uncomfortableness of the subject matter.
Apr 2
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Casey Houser
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Scattered Bids for Control
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March 2024
Forced Sight and Smell
T.C. Boyle, in The Tortilla Curtain, has a passerby force sight and smell as a portent of his character's future.
Mar 26
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Casey Houser
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Forced Sight and Smell
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How to Start an Argument
In “The Plate,” Roddy Doyle uses lifestyle and scenery to start his characters' argument before they begin speaking.
Mar 12
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Casey Houser
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How to Start an Argument
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Raw Emotion in a Rare Find
Nick Hornby, in High Fidelity, makes use of select word and phrasing choices to describe the moment of a lifetime.
Mar 5
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Casey Houser
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Raw Emotion in a Rare Find
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February 2024
Blip, Rippling Across Millennia
Peter Watts, in The Freeze-Frame Revolution, has a blip in time reflect the attitude of an entire society.
Feb 27
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Casey Houser
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Blip, Rippling Across Millennia
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A Coming Together or Separation?
In “Recitatif,” Toni Morrison has her characters' disagreement reach into the core of the story.
Feb 20
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Casey Houser
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A Coming Together or Separation?
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In a Howl Lies the Truth
In “Friday Black,” Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah lets a space between the action tell the truth about two sides of humanity.
Feb 13
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Casey Houser
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In a Howl Lies the Truth
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Letting Readers Feel the Environment
In “Wake,” Tenea D. Johnson brings readers into the action with only a minimal presentation of text.
Feb 6
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Casey Houser
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Letting Readers Feel the Environment
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January 2024
Tears. Anger. At Every Station.
In The Twilight Zone, Nona Fernández frames reality in a fictional walk through the Museum of Memory and Human Rights.
Jan 30
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Casey Houser
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Tears. Anger. At Every Station.
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Wisdom Passed Across Generations
Erika Kobayashi uses “A Tale of Burning Books” to show wisdom pass delicately from Grandma to grand-daughter.
Jan 23
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Casey Houser
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Wisdom Passed Across Generations
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