Chapter 5:

Summary

Shocking Intrusion: Shocking intrusions are insertions into sentences that make sense but come completely out of nowhere. The example Clark uses comes from the first sentence of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar: "the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs..." The reason this is shocking is because immediately before that was "It was a queer, sultry summer..." and then out of nowhere Plath inserts electrocution. It's shocking and it grabs the reader's attention right away. Instead of using other significant events of the summer of 1953, Plath goes with electrocution of spies.

Raising The Dead: If something is introduced early on in a text that is shocking (such as the electrocution of the Rosenbergs), a good writer should elaborate on this later on in their text. In The Bell Jar, the seemingly random intrusion turns out to happen parallel to the main character's symbolic death as she "dies" when the Rosenbergs are electrocuted. It's brought back many chapters and pages later, but nevertheless, it's brought back.

Living What You Dread: Everyone fears something and putting those fears to words helps create an authentic experience for the reader. Plath takes her own mental and emotional issues and fictionalizes them into a mental institution in The Bell Jar which Clark identifies as realistic and further connects to the electrocution of the Rosenbergs. The facility that the main character is stuck in is reminiscent of Plath's own mindset, writing out her fears.

Poetic Prose: There is often a divide between poetry and prose in how often figurative language is used, but Plath combines the two forms effectively. Figurative language used in prose is more fun than neutral writing forms such as research or journalism.

Emphatic Metaphors: Plath strategiclly uses metaphors throughout The Bell Jar and she uses it in a way that Clark identifies as "[stabbing] the reader" (72). She places metaphors at the end of sentences, and since the end of sentences already have power, the metaphor combined drives the point into the reader with strong emphasis. She also uses metaphors within her characters as her main character is a depressed woman who wants to write a novel, reminiscent of Plath's own writing experience.

Writing Lessons

1. Many examples of good writing have a one-two-three quality to them: subject, verb, object. In most cases, you don't want the reader to stop or even pause. My mentor Don Fry calls this effect "steady advance." But there will be exceptions, moments when the writer will intrude on the reader's expectations, even in the middle of a sentence. Call it a bump in the road. Plath achieves this effect with the insertion of the Rosenberg execution inside her first sentence. What if that sentence had been: "It was a queer, sultry summer, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York. Clear and compelling enough, but not brilliant and explosive. Most sentences you write will be A-B-C. If you want to catch the reader off guard, consider A-X-B.
2. Not all allusions are created equal. When an author quotes another author or mentions historical figures (such as the Rosenbergs), he or she embeds one narrative within another. As we've seen with the opening of The Bell Jar, an apparent offhand comment becomes a much grander metaphor, taking on new contexts and connotations as the narrative builds up steam. Most coherent texts contain a dominant image--sometimes more than one--that links the parts and accelerates the action.
3. Figurative language--such as metaphor and simile--is more common in some forms of writing than in others. Too much of it in prose can call attention to itself or make the writer sound word-drunk. But done with control, it has the ffect of expanding consciousness--especially when it is hardly noticeable. When George Orwell argued that good writing is like a windowpane, he was using a metaphor that is exactly like a windowpane, a frame for seeing the world, a boundary that is hardly noticeable.
4. That last word or phrase in a sentence or paragraph gets special attention from the reader--whether the writer intends to or not. Good writers know that these locations are hot spots and reserve them for the most interesting or important language. Plath doubles down (to use a term from blackjack) by using the ends of sentences as places to insert metaphors and similes. In Plath's case, it is like looking through Orwell's windowpane, then throwing open the window to the cool air.
5. Clever writiers sometimes play little tricks they know will delight some of their readers. My old friend Howell Raines, an author and a former editor of the New York Times wrote a profile of a young politician whose father was a famous and powerful senator. He began, "Will the son also rise?" a lead sentence clear enough on its face, but even better, if it reminds you of Hemingway, and better yet if it gets you to Ecclesiastes. Even if most readers don't get it, some will, and that makes it worth the effort. Plath plays the six-letter name trick with Esther, Eileen, and for those wearing their X-ray specs, Sylvia. On more than one level the act of writing is, to use a fancy word, ludic. It's a game. A game of language, connection, and meaning. Have some fun, for goodness' sake.

Critique

Sylvia Plath's poetry and The Bell Jar could be taught at a high school level, allowing these strategies to come into play in a classroom. These strategies can be broken down during readings of the text and explored. Such as when examples of Plath's use of "stabbing" metaphors come up, a teacher can talk specifically about them and the power they hold, and then assign students to practice writing using these strategy.

This chapter calls to mind three habits of mind presented in the "Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing:" creativity, openness, and persistence. Metaphors and poetic prose are inherently creative as well as using the intrusion technique and disturbing normal ways sentences are structured. By "[living] what you dread," a writer is forced to be open to new ideas, or rather ideas that they know well but are terrified of and therefore uncomfortable writing about. It forces a reader to explore things that they are not used to. Persistence relates bringing up ideas later on that they presented early on. It requires the writer to keep these ideas in mind for when they are writing and know when would be the appropriate time to bring them back up.

This chapter is mainly focused on fiction writing than most nonficiton. Many of the tactics that Clark discusses just would not work effectively for nonfiction pieces such as research or essays. Figurative language, for example, is encouraged in creative writing, but highly discouraged in more objective forms of writing.