Writing Asked on December 4, 2021
(The quote below is from one of Chekhov’s letters to other Russian writer, Maxim Gorky.)
Your nature descriptions are artistic; you are a true landscape
painter. But your frequent personifications (anthropomorphism), when
the sea breathes, the sky looks on, the steppe basks, and nature
whispers, talks, grieves, etc.—these personifications make your
descriptions a bit monotonous, sometimes cloying, and sometimes
unclear. Color and expressivity in nature descriptions are achieved
through simplicity alone, through simple phrases like "the sun set,"
"it grew dark," "it began to rain," etc.
As I asked in the title, what are some examples of the "simple but vivid" description that Chekhov talks about in letter excerpt above? (Examples can be from books, novels, your own writing—really wherever.)
I missed the color and expressivity (I don't think that's a word, but OK) in Chekov's phrase "The sun set." Having absorbed it, I will offer "The sun rose," as an equally simple but vivid phrase. In fact, I would argue that "The sun rose," is both a simpler and more vivid phrase than "The sun set." "The sun rose," not only expresses the spatial aspect of the phenomenon, but juxtapositions "sun" and "rose," the sun being a kind of rose (brilliantly colored flower), drawing attention to the sunniness of the sun. Simpler in its disdain for alliteration, "The sun rose," pales "The sun set."
Answered by Zan700 on December 4, 2021
Well, The sun shone, the grass grew, the waves crashed. It's odd advice from Chekov. The following are from Chekov's short story "The Witch":
And the wind staggered like a drunkard. The snowdrifts were covered with a thin coating of ice; tears quivered on them and on the trees;
I supposed he might be saying there's good and bad anthropomorphism.
Answered by Zan700 on December 4, 2021
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