Nice Prose Examples - The Lathe of Heaven
Yesterday I finished The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin. This short novel was first published in 1971. I have a 2023 reprint. It's the first LeGuin book I've ever read and I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it. That aside, I did note 4 examples of prose I thought were especially nice. Let's take a look :)
The first excerpt is on page 93. Humanity has lost the moon to Alien invaders. One of our point of view characters is driving at night and sees the moon:
It was no longer pleasant to exchange glances with the moon. It symbolized neither the Unattainable, as it had for thousands of years, nor the Attained, as it had for a few decades, but the Lost. A stolen coin, the muzzle of one's gun turned against one, a round hole in the fabric of the sky.
In this story, humanity goes through different iterations of reality. This paragraph is where the reader learns that humanity "Attained" the moon in this iteration (Attained, as in, set up a base and had people living there). Instead of plainly stating "Aliens stole the moon," the author defines it as Lost, and puts that in contrast with how the moon has existed throughout history for humanity (largely Unattainable, and for a short time, Attained). Instead of starting with "Character looked at the moon," we have the more abstract and interesting "exchange glances with." This choice feels more active, like both the character and the moon are participating in a moment together. This moment is all the more keenly felt, then, through the Loss and lonely imagery. "A stolen coin" and "A round hole in the fabric of the sky" are great statements describing the emotionally perceived absence of the moon. Whereas the muzzle line gives the sentence a threatening edge. It's a really great paragraph that introduces the concept of the stolen moon with feeling and visuals.
The second excerpt is on page 115. Here, a character has run away to a building, as apocalyptic Things are happening outside. He is alone, and for the first time in his life, really feeling that:
He listened to the radio, but it would not listen to him. He was all alone, and nothing seemed to be real in solitude. He needed somebody, anybody, to talk to, he had to tell them what he felt so that he knew if he felt anything.
I really like how the beginning of "he listened to the radio" gets flipped to "but it would not listen to him." Likewise, "to tell them what he felt so that he knew if he felt anything." You have that clever inverse/double use of the main verb to emphasize how alone the character is.
You have to be really careful with this kind of prose, as it can easily become unintentionally flippant or "fake deep." I'm reminded of that bit in "Mystery Men" where Ben Stiller's character flips all the sagely advice from his mentor.
Mentor: Until you learn to master your rage- BS: Your rage becomes your master? That's what you were going to say, right? Right? M: Not necessarily... >.>
Yeah xD You can see how you need to tread the line, there. And I think LeGuin does it very well. It doesn't go on for too long and it illustrates the loneliness of the character using clever turns of phrase.
The third excerpt is on page 154. A main character is walking towards the wrecked remains of a gigantic highway ramp. An antique store has been built against it, which he enters:
A leg of the ramp formed one wall, a high, blank, dark expanse of concrete, like the wall of an undersea cave.
Not much to say here, other than I really liked this description. I paused reading to think about how nicely it conjured the wall of an undersea cave, and how perfectly that description fit the shape of a highway ramp. This excerpt might be easier to appreciate in the story, rather than as an isolated sentence. But I definitely got the feeling of darkness and height and the slightly cold, menacing feel of being in an undersea cave.
The last excerpt is on page 159:
Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.
I just like this. It brings to mind the general advice about love in relationships being something you have to work at. The "honeymoon" phase of a relationship will only take you so far. After that, you have to work at it, make it, renew it. There is, of course, the play on words of "make love," as in working to make love exist and "make love," as in to have sex. The euphemism is clear, but the inclusion of "like bread" helps emphasize that the second meaning of "working to make it exist, you literally can't have bread unless you make it" is definite. It's a nice sentiment :)
So in all these cases, what do we see? Artistic expression. Clever uses of the language. Sensory information. Nothing is stated in a boring or plain way. The wordage subtly gives action to what could otherwise be very simple sentences (exchange glances vs look at).
The sentences tend to be long. I think the rhythm of the book is probably more in line with what was fashionable in the 1970s. If I were writing this, I would break up the sentences a bit more (I think the second sentence of the second excerpt is a run on??), but other than that, the word usage is very interesting and enjoyable, and often works on more than one level =)
