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Feel Your Way Through the Scene
In “A Redress for Andromeda,” Caitlín R. Kiernan lets the feeling of impatience replace the definition of impatience as it applies to her characters…
Casey Houser
Mar 21
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Feel Your Way Through the Scene
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They Forget Your Name, You Lose Your Status
In “The Specialist’s Hat,” Kelly Link has the protagonists forget a character's name, demoting her to secondary status in their eyes and yours.
Casey Houser
Mar 14
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They Forget Your Name, You Lose Your Status
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A Blip of Fear to Make You Uncertain
In “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles," Margaret St. Clair uses a short moment of fear to create an extended feeling of uncertainty about the…
Casey Houser
Mar 7
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A Blip of Fear to Make You Uncertain
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February 2023
Sinister Intention Behind a Commonplace Object
Jack Williamson shows in “With Folded Hands” that the loss of personal freedom can begin with removal of an object as commonplace as a door knob.
Casey Houser
Feb 28
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Sinister Intention Behind a Commonplace Object
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Everything on the Surface to Make Clear What's Beneath
In “Premium Harmony,” Stephen King keeps his prose on the surface level of his characters, allowing their universe beneath to unfold naturally.
Casey Houser
Feb 21
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Everything on the Surface to Make Clear What's Beneath
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A Personality Shown in Material Possessions
In “Sandkings,” George R. R. Martin captures the entire personality of his protagonist in the short story's opening paragraph -- with a display of the…
Casey Houser
Feb 14
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A Personality Shown in Material Possessions
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A Childhood Memory Colors the Present
In a passage from The Revivalists, Christopher M. Hood links the narrator's past to his present while subsequently using the reader's past to color…
Casey Houser
Feb 7
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A Childhood Memory Colors the Present
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January 2023
Posture and Speed Win the Vie for Dominance
In Hammers on Bone, Cassandra Khaw uses the physical posture and measured speed of her main character to give him an edge in his encounters with men and…
Casey Houser
Jan 31
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Posture and Speed Win the Vie for Dominance
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Your Peaceful Present Exposes a Horrible Future
In The Long Walk, Steven King uses a familiar type of highway sign to establish a link between the people of today and a society of the future. Is it…
Casey Houser
Jan 24
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Your Peaceful Present Exposes a Horrible Future
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An Objective to Subjective Reality Switch Builds Connection
In “A Country Doctor,” Franz Kafka builds your connection with his main character by manipulating time and space in the story.
Casey Houser
Jan 17
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An Objective to Subjective Reality Switch Builds Connection
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What Lies Beneath a Verbal Exchange
In her short story, “Bloodchild,” Octavia E. Butler shapes a pivotal conversation in a way that places verbal and non-verbal elements at odds, leaving…
Casey Houser
Jan 10
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What Lies Beneath a Verbal Exchange
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Using a Character's Personality to Foreshadow the Whole Novel
In Joan is Okay, author Weike Wang uses the protagonist's personality to foreshadow the feeling of the entire novel. In one tense and telling scene, you…
Casey Houser
Jan 3
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Using a Character's Personality to Foreshadow the Whole Novel
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