Category Archives: -Karen Kittrell

This Is Your Brain on Sentences

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the-high-mountains-of-portugalWords express emotions, actions and sensations. Both short Hemingway-ish power sentences and long clause-embedded beauties force me to marvel at the craft, inventive structure and grammatical placement. I go back, reread and savor an author’s phrase word by word. Reading is good food for the brain.

Now science proves what literature already knew. Neuroscience News reveals a study about predicting the areas of the brain activated by words in a sentence. Previous studies mapped the brain on the meanings associated with words. For example, the article cites the word “play” which triggers brain areas associated with biomotion and arousal. With a deliberate thought to brain play, it’s time now to hunt for some examples of brain tingling responses.

A perfect source of material is Yann Martel’s The High Mountains of Portugal. For readers of Life of Pi, Martel’s latest book combines unusual characters with somber themes, apes, and a special something extra of magical realism on the top. I listened to the audio book first and then sought the written copy to reread my favorite parts. Heck, I pretty much reread the whole book. The pure escape of Martel’s writing saved me when I had an unpleasant chore to tackle. Plugging my brain into Martel’s Portugal transformed the experience.

Lingering Despair

The novel begins with a quirky character Tomas who is heartbroken from the death of his son and the woman he loved. “ . . . he is ambushed by a memory of Dora, smiling and reaching out to touch him. For that, the cane is useful, because memories of her always throw him off balance” (Martel 2).

Martel uses the uncle to ask, “Why? Why are you doing this? Why don’t you walk like a normal person?” (9) My brain sympathizes with Tomas’ sadness and his peculiar manner of walking. Martel explains that “what his uncle does not understand is that in walking backward, his back to the world, his back to God, he is not grieving. He is objecting. Because when everything cherished by you in life has been taken away, what else is there to do but object?” (12).

Pestering Itch

Tomas begins his own quest for a sacred artifact in the high mountains. Preserving the past, the legends, and the myths, the mountains are also primitive and resist the modern. Soon, Tomas “is itchy all over, in a manner that is absolutely maddening, precisely because he is a tornado of vermin, with a civilization of lice, fleas, and whatnot dancing upon his head” (Martel 82). And ten pages later, my own skin crawls with imaginary lice. I feel Tomas’ relief when “he raises his ten fingers in the air. His blackened fingernails gleam. With a warlike cry, he throws himself into the fray. He rakes his fingernails over his head-the top, the sides, the nape–and over his bearded cheeks and neck.” And the scratching and grunting satisfaction continued for several pages, but I turn down the volume and glance around to see if any of the neighbors have come to find the source of such groans.

Nauseating Unease

Autopsy is common on the prime time television series. Martel cleverly calls “every dead body . . . a book with a story to tell, each organ a chapter, the chapters united by a common narrative” (137). My lessons in anatomy are limited to life drawing classes. Dissections ended in ninth grade biology with a starfish and frog. And my experiences with decay are limited to the latest zombie movie or the refrigerator crisper drawer. Martel lures squeamish readers, like me, into the examiner’s office. The coroner, Eusebio, “is used to being greeted by the Mortis sisters when he comes to work. The oldest, Algor, chills the patient to the ambient temperature; Livor, the middle sister, neatly applies her favourite colour scheme–yellowish grey to the top half of the patient and purple-red to the bottom half, where the blood has settled–and rigor, the youngest, so stiffens the body that bones can be broken if limbs are forced. They are cheery ones, these sisters, eternal spinsters who ravish innumerable bodies” (Martel 190). From here, the author dives deep into the stages of decay in the days after death. He pushes the descriptions to the limit; I can’t take any more. My brain on full revolt warns to avert my eyes and cover my ears. It was almost too much. It was too much. But then, before I look away, something unexpected happens. Something magical. Something beautiful. Something unreal. I want to believe. However, I also wanted to believe the notion of Pi training a tiger on a rescue boat in the middle of the ocean.

The High Mountains of Portugal is a successful storytelling rich for study. Other areas of study might include theme, structure, and magical realism. In every post, I highlight an author’s unique writing with a specific goal to avoid spoiling the reader’s full enjoyment of the plot and the story.

For Better or For Worse – Fates and Furies (Part 3/3)

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Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies falls into my newly created genre of relationship, or quite simply, “apres romance.” This novel begins at the most extreme height of passion, usually where most romance plots end. Yet does this relationship feel real? With the help of Professor Mark Leary at Duke University, I apply Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior to separate fact from fiction.

Love is A Drugunderstanding-the-mysteries

FACT – Lotto’s love at first sight is actually a psychological term called “excitation transfer.” After his stage performance, he sees Mathilde, relabels his excitement to her and falls in love. BOOM! Groff captures the passionate love of newlyweds.  Apparently, the brain in love is a brain on drugs.  Pumped full of dopamine and phenylethylamine (PEA), the brain is excited and exhilarated in the early phase of a relationship. Then, as the neurotransmitters chill, the relationship shifts to more compassionate love and douses the brain with oxytocin, leaving a warm fuzzy connected – all is right with the world – feeling.  Groff succeeds here in portraying the shift to career, financial and family concerns.

Opposites Attract

FICTION – Relationships run into problems based on personalities and character traits. In general, happy people tend to have better relationships. According to Leary, people who are disagreeable, hostile, suspicious and selfish will have less satisfying relationships. In Fates and Furies, Lotto narrates the first half of the book. His personality and basic nature attract followers and fans, and Mathilde may be the only one to deal with his alcoholism and bi-polar tendencies. She keeps Lotto hinged and producing plays. Mathilde, who seems opposite of Lotto, may succeed because of her stealth-like dominance in running their lives. As Lotto describes, she runs on the passive-aggressive side.

Marriage is Hard

FACT – Expectations are higher in modern relationships according to Leary. Our previous experiences make our comparison levels higher. There’s even a theory for this – Interdependence Theory. The criteria for rating current relationships is based on previous relationships. For the same amount of effort or “costs,” what are the rewards with someone else? Lotto and Mathilde’s relationship exceeds previous relationship experiences which make them satisfied. Since other alternative relationships do not compare, the couple stays committed.

Until Death Do We Part

FICTION – As a relationship ages, the perceived costs increase. Successful relationships manage to incorporate increasing rewards to adjust for the current costs. Lotto accepts the cost – his childless marriage. Mathilde increases Lotto’s rewards by using her leverage to make him successful and lets him naively believe his talent triumphed. Responsiveness is also a key to marriage success. Mathilde’s anger at Lotto’s speech about her role in their relationship made her pull back. Lotto came to her in apology, and they reunited. Had he harbored a grudge about being abandoned after his speech, the rift between them would have grown. Unsuccessful marriages foster an environment where each partner alternately disengages further and further.

Overall, Groff represents the ongoing challenges of a long-term relationship. If anything, the Lotto and Mathilde relationship is so three-dimensional that the other relationships in the story are flat.

This concludes my three-part series based on the novel Fates and Furies. When a novel succeeds on so many levels, I want to know why. How did the author accomplish so much? What was unique about this story? If there is any doubt, I confess a writer’s respect and a reader’s admiration for Lauren Groff’s creativity in structure “Give It To Me Straight“, mastery of style “It’s Greek to Me” and realistic depiction of a relationship over the span of two life times “For Better or For Worse.”

 

It’s Greek to Me – Fates and Furies (Part 2/3)

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GreekLauren Groff’s writing style leaps from the pages. She molds sentences, paragraphs, and scenes to convey her story and move her plot across not one, but two, lifetimes. The author uniquely structures her story in two independent, separate and equal parts—one Fates and one Furies.  A flip through the pages reveals style from first glance to the basic blocks of words and sentences.

At First Glance

Fates and Furies builds on a knowledge of Greek mythology. Short stories use this premise to shortcut the character and story development. For example, if characters have a known history—Achilles, Samson, and Delilah or even Little Red Riding Hood—than there is less to create. A writer simply builds on the history inherent with the name or situation.

The title is an early tip to find the college mythology book – preferably of the Greek variety. Fates include Clotho (the spinner), Lacheis (the measurer) and Atropos (cutter of the thread of life). Except for the gal with the scissors, the Fates are a pleasant enough group. The husband in the story, Lotto, is guided by symbolic Fates—mother, sister and wife. The Furies are three sisters, monsters, that punish the guilty in the underworld and seek justice and vengeance. More specifically, the spirits go after people who have murdered family members. An internet images search on the Furies results in women with snakes, wings, fangs and crazy-eyes. This is not a huge spoiler to remind you that Mathilde known by Aurelie at the beginning of her story had a deadly mishap with her little brother, and her life was forever changed. The Furies – Mathilde’s family, employer, friends and even herself – punish for life.

Lotto adds more to the Greek theme with his play about Antigone. In dialogue, he explains his concept for the play, but Groff takes it further. Through Lotto, she writes the play. Did she create it for this book? I would like to ask her. A writer’s repertoire is fair game for any project.

Worthy to note is the influence of Shakespeare. Lines of verse, italicized and offset, forcibly inject the English playwright into the narrative. Characters happen to quote meaningful lines from Shakespeare in conversation. And on stage, the reader sees Lotto and “mystery character Land” assume leading Shakespearian roles. Quoting Shakespeare must be the trendy thing to do. Only a few chapters into The Revenant  by Michael Punke, Shakespeare earns a quote in this frontier survival and revenge drama.

The White Space Around the Words

An artist will do a value study to assess darks and lights. For a writer, a similar study might include the white space around the printed words. In paragraphs, shapes emerge from scenes, dialogue and sentences.

Groff liberally uses white breaks to jump to a different scene and to exit scenes all together in order to enter the mind of one of her characters. The reader samples Lotto’s plays such as “Antigone” and Mathilde’s quotes from Sylvia Plath and Florestan in Beethovan’s Fidelio.

Time advances in Lotto’s life through his writing, production of his plays and reviews of his plays. In one section, Groff centers the play title in all caps followed by the year. The reader zooms into the aftermath of each play and its effect on Lotto and Mathilde.

Both Lotto and Mathilde’s points of view use a phrase or sentences in brackets.  [Like this.] Every review of the book compares the bracketed asides to a Greek chorus. The chorus hints of the future—foreshadowing tragedy or irony. In an interview with The Atlantic, Groff mentions the brackets as an author’s whisper, such as Virginia Woolf used in To the Lighthouse. I’m embarrassed to admit that I have not read this novel but add another one to the “must read before I die” list.

The Words

A good writer spoils the reader with sentences that dance and imitate the real world albeit in art. Since reading Fates and Furies, I’m a harsh judge of writing style. I want Lauren Groff’s word choice, sentence structure, and imagery.

My first exposure to Groff was in a short story called “Ghosts and Empties.” In an interview, she explained that this piece’s long ambling sentences were like walking. That comment stayed with me—manipulating the flow of words, voice, for the setting of the story.

The long sentences are gone in Fates and Furies. The author seeks another style goal in this novel and is precise with her language. On the other hand, along with imagery is metaphor applied to take this story to an artistic level. Her prose draws comparison with Nabokov’s quick words and tone. Groff draws much of her storytelling from Virginia Woolf. Again in the Atlantic, Groff says “The greatest texts, I think, first dazzle, then with careful rereading, they instruct . . .subversive ways of portraying time, of looking away from the human to the far more terrifying, far more immense texture of time beneath the minute span of a human life.” And this is an example of Lauren Groff’s magnificent way with words.

Next month, “For Better or Worse” (Fates and Furies part 3/3) examines relationship and attraction according to human psychology studies.

Give It To Me Straight – Fates and Furies (Part 1/3)

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Then, play it again.

Fates and furiesReaders of Fates and Furies find a big story of modern marriage and relationship wrapped between the covers of this National Book Award Finalist. Lauren Groff’s novel offers a wealth of literary resources with her creative reinvention of structure, style and character. This three part analysis begins with storytelling and structure.

The Straight Line – Sequential Plot

Lancelot, nicknamed Lotto, tells his story for the first half of the book, almost two hundred pages in this four hundred page novel. In The Detroit Free Press  published interview, Lauren Groff  refers to her story as a tale of privilege. Let me count the ways that Lotto is privileged. First, he has fortune when he needs it and choses to surrender his fortune for his desires. Second, he has success. Maybe he was lucky or worked hard. Or maybe he fits the description of privilege – well educated, wealthy, male and white. Third, characters surround him, offer support and champion his cause – especially his wife. These factors propel Lotto’s story to the forefront and the first half of the book.

The point of view begins omniscient as the reader sees the first married union of Lotto and Mathilde – lest it be thought that the entire story is about Lotto. From there, the point of view shifts to a deep third in Lotto’s point of view. His story dips back to his birth with a clever device of repeating a story told many times to him. Time moves forward with Lotto’s perceptions dominating the story of his friends, his dreams and his marriage to mystery woman, Mathilde.

The Jagged Line – Fractured Plot

Mathilde, the wife, encourages readers to identify with her rage. Let me count the ways that Mathilde is angry. First, as a child, she is blamed for a deadly mean streak, shamed and never forgiven. Her survival depends on distant relatives who have no concern for her wellbeing. Second, egotistical and pretentious Lotto is the best part of her life, and without him, she is the devastated widow – her education and hard work unraveled without her center, her husband. Third, Mathilde believes she is “the interesting one.” Mathilde’s past is an example of the writer pushing a character to the outer limits of believability. Themes of inequality thread through the novel. In Lotto’s point of view, he blindly accepts Mathilde’s lack of family and friends. Mathilde’s half of the novel, another two hundred pages, tells her scrambled tragic version of her life story.

Mathilde’s narration alternates between her angry widow world and chapters revealing her  past and the formation of her values and beliefs. Mathilde selectively takes the reader through her childhood slowly opening the doors to understand her motives. Mathilde’s mean streak dots every chapter for the reader. Her only softness comes for the man she marries, and he is not spared from her passive aggressive ways.

Play It Again – Story Arc

Throw the traditional story arc in the trash for this novel except that Lotto’s half of the book is fairly traditional. Mathilde’s point of view jumps back in time and returns to her widowed agony almost like a zigzag across a graph of time. Unlike parallel plots, this story challenges even the most ambitious of screenwriter. For example, The Girl on the Train uses multiple points of view, slowly revealing a suspenseful and complicated plot arc. And hence, bestseller becomes screenplay and film. Some stories succeed with repetition – a retry of the same idea like the “back to square one” game – as used in the movie, Groundhog Day, and new Sci-fi film, Edge of Tomorrow; Live, Die, Repeat. Each repetition moves the story one step further.

Groff’s repetition, however, drills beneath what the reader assumed was the true story. For every major event in Lotto’s life, the reader now sees the hand of Mathilde. Her callous placement of an obituary notice punishes Lotto for his abandonment. She deliberately denies Lotto the children he wants. And Mathilde leverages everything to make her husband and his plays successful. In Mathilde’s story, vengefulness and anger are ever present – from the bruising of a teasing schoolmate to the personal and financial destruction of Lotto’s best friend.

In her interview, Groff states she planned to publish the two stories separately. The two halves together form a rich comparison in structure, style and character. The next post “It’s Greek To Me” will examine Groff’s style and literary references. After that, a third post will explore character and the human psychology of relationship and attraction. As seen in structure, marriage “For Better or For Worse” is a risky endeavor.

 

I Pitched an Agent, and I Liked It

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baseball gloveMost people will never pitch a book to an agent, because the experience ranks somewhere among swimming with sharks, getting naked in front of strangers and driving in Detroit with your doors unlocked. I planned to keep my pitches to the baseball field or the horse barn. Yet, outside conference room C, I paced and worried about a few words, a few minutes and a great big manuscript on my laptop at home.  

Nothing To Lose

My writer friend, Kathy (real name), suggested the writing conference. For the opportunity to pitch, the conference charged a small extra fee. Kathy asked, “Why don’t you pitch one of your manuscripts? What do you have to lose?” She offered lodging at her house in a cool college town, invited other writers and splurged on food and drinks.  I almost forgot I had an appointment the next morning with special literary agent X.

Right-Hand on a Keyboard Confession

I avoided planning my pitch. And I visualized different scenarios where magical literary agent X said, “Yes, I love it. Send me everything you have. I’m your dream agent for life.” Or he said, “Naw. I’m gonna pass. Do you have anything else? No? Next writer!” I wanted to be ready and wrote a trial pitch for all of the manuscripts collecting digital dust in my flash drive pile. I even designed writer business cards to slide across the table to potentially intimidating agent X. 

On Friday afternoon, I tested my pitch on the other tag-along writer invitees. With a cat curled in my lap, I read my multiple pitches to writer friends, Jacqui and Mamie (also real names). They liked everything except the book I planned to pitch. The pitch was all wrong. While they relaxed with a bottle of wine and managed a few plucks at their keyboard, I revised and expanded my pitch to several sentences and then several paragraphs. 

Expect Success

Kathy had attended an afternoon session with information about pitching. Turns out, my new pitch was all wrong. So while the others talked, made dinner, and opened more wine, I shortened my pitch and made the essence of my story obvious. Beware plotters everywhere: the pitch is story and not plot. “Not to worry,” Kathy said. “Agents request from writers who pitch.” Without memorizing a word, we went to sleep dreaming of a request for our cherished manuscripts.

Memorize Your Pitch

In the morning, practice coach, Mamie, encouraged rehearsing my pitch until I was sick of it and had it mostly memorized. Jacqui buoyed my spirits with support for my relentless (borderline neurotic) writing and rewriting of the same material a hundred times. We all laughed at the silly exercise, because of course, we were destined for print. Then we heard from other writers who pitched and were not asked for requests. My nerves rocketed from zero to sixty in less than ten seconds.

Outside conference room C, I met a very friendly writer waiting for the same agent. She had pitched at another conference, and this time, brought a query letter for the agent to critique. I asked the conference coordinator if she had any tips. She said it’s more about you. If you believe in your story, then the agent will want it. Okay, maybe that was intended to help, but now, success or failure was because of me–oh great! When I sat down across from the agent, I forgot my memorized pitch in mid-sentence (nervous laugh) and had to start over, but I survived. That doesn’t mean it was a cakewalk. Agent X voiced concerns. I countered her “objections” with answers from the day before when I sorted through themes, conflicts and characters. With the agent’s card in my hand and a request for a partial, I felt successful and decided my earlier notions about the pitch experience were maybe a bit overblown but only slightly. I would rate a pitch on the same level with a job interview. The writer must prepare, deliver and be ready to move forward to the next step in the process.