1.13 Reading Characters
Both pieces I enjoyed - the latter I favour mainly because it generated several giggles out of me which we'll get to.
George Orwell's piece then. Short, punchy. The key point for me here is the word 'hideous'. This isn't an ordinary birthmark which shallow people might perceive as being ugly and treat the person so. Here we have the narrator, the author, telling us, that it's not just a birthmark but a hideous one! It strikes me as harsh and is (for good or ill) certainly making a powerful impression as to how he wants us to picture his character. To my eyes, drumming it in a second time with "He was quite aware of its hideousness" is overkill.
The second piece, from Zoë Heller I really like. The dry humour is British-like and very much in the vein I enjoy. Lines like "before having to mould my face into the appropriate smile", and "the loose tendrils had graduated to hanks" particularly tickle me. I love the word-choice of 'hanks', very vivid and strong.
The style is flowing, introducing different elements about her naturally and interspersed between events and actions which breaks it up from otherwise a dense paragraph of description.
I think I'll be holding on to a copy of this and drawing inspiration from it next time.
But what do you think? Am I being overly critical of George? Am I missing flaws from Zoë?
Happy Writing :-)
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