FEBRUARY - VLADIMIR NABOKOV
Vladimir Nabokov was a master of wordplay and this mastery led to his publication eventually of the novel Lolita, in spite of censorship and fear. He paved the way for future writers to push the boundaries of what is acceptable and test society's appetite for the immoral and outrageous. Nabokov uses many linguistic devices, from alliteration to onomatopoeia, in an idiosyncratic, distinctive way. Nabokov related his mastery of language to his love of solving chess problems. To Nabokov, the "originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity and splendid insincerity" of creating a chess problem was like the creative process of writing a book.
EXERCISE #1 - WORDPLAY
Nabokov was known for the playfulness of his language. He took words, pulled them apart, twisted them and created something new. A broken life described as "He broke my heart. You merely broke my life." Or rain as: "Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards." Describe something in an unusual way by forming an unexpected association.
EXERCISE #2 - ALLITERATION
The repetition of sounds in a series of words creates rhythm and the visual similarity of the words affects the focus of the reader. Effective alliteration in James Joyce's The Dead:
"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
Write down some words using alliteration. Start off following Joyce's lead and then continue from there.
soul swooned slowly faintly falling and falling faintly
EXERCISE #3 - UNUSUAL COMPARISONS
Forming similes by making unusual comparison can enlighten an image and last in the memory. Murakami described the simile of an ear thusly: "One pointy ear peeks out from the strands of her hair like a little mushroom, looking strangely fragile."
Write some similes creating an unusual comparison between two things.