Waking up below zero
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 06:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniWow, a lot of opinions on yesterday's discussion question!
Speaking as someone who writes books that have been dinged as "too easy," "too hard," "cheesy," "guilty pleasures," "badly written," and "literary masterpieces" (often the same books), the only thing I can add is that every reader brings a different expectation to the table, and that no two reading experiences can be the same, because we all live alone inside our heads.
The qualification and certification processes are fascinating to observe, though.
FWIW, I was raised up by a band of feral newspaper reporters and advertising copywriters. Keeping it simple is one of the basic tenets of both forms. Good reporters must especially excel at being able to communicate sometimes very emotional, and very complex information clearly. So "easy read" in which "easy" stands in for "clear" and "accessible" is sorta the Grail.
Yesterday became All About Doctors. Not only did Steve have an appointment, but I got a lightning appointment with my doctor, too. Nope, not jealous, but. . .Steve reports that I sometimes stop breathing when I'm asleep, and then start up again, noisily. And I have for a couple years now woken up from time to time with a "recurring dream" that I'm not breathing, and start gasping for air. Which, yanno, I figured was Just Stress.
Turns out that it might be sleep apnea, and the gasping thing is my brain yelling, "Hey dummy; you're not breathing! Wake up!"
So -- a sleep test in my near future. I'm not worried about getting any of the answers wrong, because I intend to brush up with Mozart, who has a double-doctorate in the Art and also the Science of Sleep.
However! I think that some of you on the FL have had this test? What can I expect?
For today -- a couple hours at the day-job, then a drive to Bangor in the maybe-snow, for -- wait for it -- a doctor's appointment.
Speaking as someone who writes books that have been dinged as "too easy," "too hard," "cheesy," "guilty pleasures," "badly written," and "literary masterpieces" (often the same books), the only thing I can add is that every reader brings a different expectation to the table, and that no two reading experiences can be the same, because we all live alone inside our heads.
The qualification and certification processes are fascinating to observe, though.
FWIW, I was raised up by a band of feral newspaper reporters and advertising copywriters. Keeping it simple is one of the basic tenets of both forms. Good reporters must especially excel at being able to communicate sometimes very emotional, and very complex information clearly. So "easy read" in which "easy" stands in for "clear" and "accessible" is sorta the Grail.
Yesterday became All About Doctors. Not only did Steve have an appointment, but I got a lightning appointment with my doctor, too. Nope, not jealous, but. . .Steve reports that I sometimes stop breathing when I'm asleep, and then start up again, noisily. And I have for a couple years now woken up from time to time with a "recurring dream" that I'm not breathing, and start gasping for air. Which, yanno, I figured was Just Stress.
Turns out that it might be sleep apnea, and the gasping thing is my brain yelling, "Hey dummy; you're not breathing! Wake up!"
So -- a sleep test in my near future. I'm not worried about getting any of the answers wrong, because I intend to brush up with Mozart, who has a double-doctorate in the Art and also the Science of Sleep.
However! I think that some of you on the FL have had this test? What can I expect?
For today -- a couple hours at the day-job, then a drive to Bangor in the maybe-snow, for -- wait for it -- a doctor's appointment.
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Easy Read
Date: 2011-01-26 07:15 am (UTC)On "easy read". Simple and clear is definitely best in my opinion. Indeed for "easy" one might mean "clear". I happen to like the first sentence of novels or the first paragraph. For your inspection the first paragraph of "the Hobbit" by J.RR. Tolkien. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat; it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.".
Notice that most of the words are one syllable. Only one I believe is descended from French which kind of made our language classier. Most good solid English words descended from the Anglo Saxon from before 1066.
First sentence of "the Fellowship of the Ring" "When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton." One long sentence with some words descended from French. Perhaps to signal that this is a book for grown ups, not for children.
C.