“It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid
I would guess his books are full of phrase turns that catch at one’s sensibilities.
When one discovers a gem like this, while reading, do you think it’s a step outside the story? Sometimes, beautifully written narrative calls itself out, limelight flashes down and you find yourself reading it over and over, mouthing the roundness of the words as you read them — and thereby taking you out of the story. Good? Bad? Inevitable (hopefully)?
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I do think it’s a step outside of the story- for the good. Usually it’s something that resonates so much with the reader they have to reread it over and over again. Though it does take you from the story I like to think those pieces of narrative are what attaches the reader to the story at the end.
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I think y’all are right. I think it is the mark of good narrative, and a good narrator. Just my opinion. It’s like the back-of-the-mind type thoughts one find themselves hearing when they write. I think a good writer might take those thoughts and refine them into a clarity pertinent to the story.
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I think this sounds a bit like author intrusion … it also reminded me of the “dead wife’s comb” haiku by Buson:
Piercing chill—
stepping on my dead wife’s comb
in the bedroom [1]
from http://www.ahundredgourds.com/ahg24/exposition01.html
For whatever it’s worth.
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