Chapter 8:

Summary

Details of Desperation: Don't just state something simply and be done with it, elaborate, use the environment to emphasize those statements. In Madame Bovary, the section Clark uses explores the concept of desperation using the physical room: "in that little room on the ground floor with its smoking stove, squeaking door, sweating walls and damp stone floor." There is too much going on, everything has meaning. Gustave Flaubert could have simply stated that the character, Emma, felt depressed and desperate but instead he gave details to describe her state.

Bitterness on a Plate: Combining literal and metaphoric language in a single sentence can create interesting incidences. Clark pulls the line "All the bitterness of life seemed to be served up to her on her plate" from Madame Bovary to explore this. The metaphoric language "the bitterness of life" is contrasted with the literal of being served on a plate. It seems cliché at first, but gains power when that line is paired with a scene taking place at dinner making it seem almost as if bitterness is a course being served for dinner, more metaphoric language.

Small Gestures Filled With Meaning: Even small gestures can have an overabundance of detail and meaning behind them. In Madame Bovary, a statement as simple as "Charles was a slow eater" is reinforced by details explaining his mannerisms and how slow of an eater. These gestures can easily be overlooked, but they can also be explored more, it all depends on the wishes of the writer.

Mystery of Motive: It's common for writers to want to explain why characters do the things they do. It's even more common for readers to want it explained to them without having to dig deep to find out. However, it can be more interesting for everyone if the "why" of a character is left up in the air as a mystery, nevel fully explained. Clarks explains this perfectly by saying, "In fiction, the complexity of motive adds texture to a work and mystery and intrigue to the experience of reading" (108).

Arrow of Indirection: Interesting layers are added to a text when the writer avoids saying things outright and instead shows them. It's subjectively easier for a writer to state their opinions and move on but showing them allows for more interesting tactics to be used. In fiction, for example, a writer's opinions can be shown through a character in their dialogue or thoughts. This allows a writer to express their thoughts without outright saying, "These are my thoughts."

Writing lessons

1. Look for the smallest domestic details that reveal the complexities of a character's inner life. Those complexities will almost always include the negative, problematic, or painful feelings of existence, the crosses we bear, the steps we regret.
2. What the characters are not doing is as important and sometimes more important, than their direct actions and reveals aspects of their histories and personalities. Emma's passivity in the kitchen marked by tiny, futile gestures, speaks more loudly than crashed dishes on the floor.
3. In the absence of action by the character, some force must step in and replace it. This includes inanimate objects. A door can act. Or a wall. Or a plate. Or something on the plate. All this and more is happening in Flaubert's passage.
4. Given the choice between a word in adjective or verb form, opt for the verb, which tends to be stronger. I prefer Flaubert's original phrasing to that of his translator. A door that squeaks louder than a squeaking door. This effect can be enhanced by parallel constructions,used sometimes to compare equal elements and sometimes to contrast them.
5. Use the routine setting to generate metaphors--in this case the plate, which holds unpalatable food, but also bitterness. Move up and down the ladder of abstraction from the level of ideas to the level of specific evidence and back.
6. In human experience, motivation is a cracked mirror, never providing a pure reflection. Avoid, in both fiction and nonfiction, any simple explanation for why characters make important choices.
7. Gather evidence until you reach a dominant feeling about your source. Present that evidence--without editorial opinion--to influence (but not determine) the reader's response. Show and tell when you must, with a preference for showing.

critique

While Madame Bovary is not exactly a common text taught in high schools, the themes that Clark presents about the text can easily be taught without it. Even if a teacher does not wish to teach the entire text, they can use an excerpt (similar to what Clark uses) to help demonstrate the strategies that Clark presents and have students apply them to their own writing in focused writing assignments.

There is one prominent habit of mind from the "Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing" present in this chapter: creativity. Everything Clark suggests lends itself to creative writing in some form. He encourages writers to try new and exciting things with their writing, with the strategies he suggests primarily working in fiction texts more than in nonfiction texts, but not exclusively.

This chapter primarily leans itself to fiction, but does have some instances that can be applied across the range of writing. Gathering a plethora of evidence before affirming a feeling on a subject and showing readers evidence instead of telling them flat out can be used easily in research writing as well as the fiction writing that Clark aims for.