From My Fantasy Writing Desk
In between cooking a turkey and pumpkin pie and other culinary traditions this week, I’ve been reading through lecture notes from a sequence of writing classes I took a few years ago. I’d been meaning for a while to refresh what I’d learned back then, but hadn’t fit it in.
One of the techniques I’d let slip from my conscious use while drafting has to do with adding multiple beats to significant emotional moments. The greater the emotional grab the moment calls for, the more beats. Seems so obvious, and yet, I’d forgotten. Spread the load, instead of expecting one phrase to carry all the weight–which can put too much on a few words. It pushes me toward choosing purple or otherwise overdone words.
My notes remind me to add the compelling simile, the small descriptive phrase, the exactly right action that reflects the inner feeling—or perhaps all three (or more). These additions can draw the reader inside the experience and provide the mental time and multiple ways to experience it. I’m usually trying to strip away words. However, sometimes piling them on, with care and originality, of course, is what I need to do. Creating emotional engagement is a complicated, layered process. I’m glad to renew some fading skills in my mental toolbox.
Archaeology I Enjoyed
What the Dead Tell Us
The recent restart of excavations at Pompeii have produced another haunting image. Archaeologists are again using an old technique. They pour liquid chalk into the hardened ash when they find human or animal remains. This process preserves the positions of the bodies in eerie detail, including the folds of their clothes.
In this latest find, two men sought protection in an underground passageway, the cryptoporticus, that connected the stables to the upper levels of the villa. The wear and tear on the bones of these two recently found men indicate that one, around 20 years old, was a slave and the other, between 30 and 40, was well-to-do, presumably the master. This is the same area of the Pompeii site where several months ago archaeologists uncovered a man and his harnessed horse, caught in the moment of fleeing.
For those who survived the opening day of Vesuvius’ destruction and decided to begin their flight the next morning, a blazing cloud of volcanic material ended those hopes of safety. Click here for AP news, “Bodies of man and his slave unearthed from ashes at Pompeii”
A Ramp into Divine Healing
The temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, Greece, had, it turns out, eleven stone ramps to provide access for the god’s clientele with disabilities. As a center for divine medicine, many who visited came on litter or wagon, or walked with a cane.
The temple officials wanted to ensure the success of the healing sanctuary. So they made it possible for visitors to enter the buildings. This does not mean ancient Greeks were inspired to extend this accessibility principle to all public spaces. They just made the “hospital” profitable.
Nonetheless, the discovery of ramps in this context strikes me as an encouraging sort of ingenuity. Click here for Archaeology Magazine, “To Reach the Gods.”