April 23, 2009

| Rats, I Ran Out of Words >>

Just read a random entry on Zoe Finkel’s blog about waltzing and getting in over your head. It’s amazingly good writing.

On the continuum of writing, there is, of course, bad writing; then there’s good writing; then there’s really good writing that knows it’s really good writing, that telegraphs its mastery (“Aha, did you see that thing I just did? With the words? Of course you did!”); and then there’s a kind of good writing beyond that, which sort of punctures the veil and achieves a special kind of ease and grace. I’m pretty sure this is an example.

It also has plenty of what Roy Peter Clark describes as “gold coins” (it’s writing tool #19) — little asides, little moments of delight, not necessarily crucial to the central story. Zoe’s image of men dancing with other men, and the allusion to Yale, is an example.