Way With Words

There was once a time that I read books and would find myself straining against the descriptive words authors would use to paint a picture in my mind.  My imagination wanted to paint its own pictures, with its center being the actions of the characters traversing the story held within the pages.  I admit that I do this sometimes still when I am completely captivated by the story and it draws me forward in the book's time - anxious to see the conclusion revealed.

The sad thing here is that many authors portray a rich tapestry with amazing detail and beautiful words, and the reading is somewhat paler when the reader doesn't take a moment to observe the power they wield within the story.

The redeeming feature of a book is that you can read it again, revisiting the past by reliving it.  This gives us the time to actually pause and appreciate the textures and the depth.  The story line is still there for us, but we are aware of the path the main theme will take.  We can now spend some time exploring the side-trails and backwaters, finding a heron wading in the shallows or the sound of the wind through the branches of barren trees.

Because I spend more time with words now, I find myself taking note when words are put together in a way that calls to me.

"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone.  She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night.  But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea."  from The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

And now we all know better what a unicorn is, or was, thanks to some well chosen words.  

I wish I could say the entirety of The Last Unicorn maintains this quality.  In reality, the turn of beautiful phrases flit in and out of the book amidst uneven and inconsistent character development and a story line that can be difficult to follow.  Yet, I find myself continuing to read because the ideas in the story are brilliant and these word gems appear just often enough to keep me digging for more of them.

"She did not look anything like a horned horse, as unicorns are often pictured, being smaller and cloven-hoofed, and possessing that oldest, wildest grace that horses have never had, that deer have only in a shy, thin imitation and goats in dancing mockery."

As near as I can tell, this is also an accurate description of the best writing.  We know it when we see it, but so much is just a thin imitation or a dancing mockery of a unicorn.