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Tough Little Bits
For me, a wonderful read is not unlike a perfectly cut filet. If they’re good, they’re tender, dynamic and fulfilling.
There’s an art of appreciation involved when you take on either. And if they’re worth their weight, they require a little work. Anthony Bourdain ruminates on the art-form that is enjoying a piece of meat. ‘Understand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it - not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.’
Reading a piece of literature, an article or poetry even, is no different. The reader has an obligation. There are parts that go down sweeping, smooth and easy. They’re the craving, the fair fill and the expectation. And then, somewhere in the middle there are those wonderful tough little bits. They are the lines that cannot be readily swallowed in one passing, the ones that stick out somehow, that turn the mind, that zing.
I’ve been collecting these tough little bits for some time. That is, I print out favorite literary quotes and lines and store them away.
I store them because they are what I strive for in my own writing. That faint subversive moment, like a second off-tempo beat in the rhythm of the song. The world is filled with words, and combinations of such. The writer is tasked then, with a noble goal: to do something different within those repeating patterns.
If we’ve given our reader the thing they’re craving, we’ve done our job. If we’ve given them what they’re craving and made them work to come out holding new thought, new perspective or new appreciation, we’ve done it well.
Some samples from my tough bits archive:
‘A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp.’ Carson McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Café
‘The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’ . . .The land is flat, the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them.’ Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
‘Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence. Changed, I headed back through the mud. I was drenched; anybody could see it was time to come in out of the rain.’ John Knowles, A Separate Peace
"I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me." Kate Chopin, The Awakening
‘You're the only girl I've seen for a very long time that actually did look like something blooming.’ F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night
‘Holding all I used to be sorry about like the new moon holding water.’ William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
‘Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting.’ Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
So tell us, do you have some favorite bits of your own?
There’s an art of appreciation involved when you take on either. And if they’re worth their weight, they require a little work. Anthony Bourdain ruminates on the art-form that is enjoying a piece of meat. ‘Understand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it - not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.’
Reading a piece of literature, an article or poetry even, is no different. The reader has an obligation. There are parts that go down sweeping, smooth and easy. They’re the craving, the fair fill and the expectation. And then, somewhere in the middle there are those wonderful tough little bits. They are the lines that cannot be readily swallowed in one passing, the ones that stick out somehow, that turn the mind, that zing.
I’ve been collecting these tough little bits for some time. That is, I print out favorite literary quotes and lines and store them away.
I store them because they are what I strive for in my own writing. That faint subversive moment, like a second off-tempo beat in the rhythm of the song. The world is filled with words, and combinations of such. The writer is tasked then, with a noble goal: to do something different within those repeating patterns.
If we’ve given our reader the thing they’re craving, we’ve done our job. If we’ve given them what they’re craving and made them work to come out holding new thought, new perspective or new appreciation, we’ve done it well.
Some samples from my tough bits archive:
‘A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp.’ Carson McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Café
‘The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’ . . .The land is flat, the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them.’ Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
‘Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence. Changed, I headed back through the mud. I was drenched; anybody could see it was time to come in out of the rain.’ John Knowles, A Separate Peace
"I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me." Kate Chopin, The Awakening
‘You're the only girl I've seen for a very long time that actually did look like something blooming.’ F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night
‘Holding all I used to be sorry about like the new moon holding water.’ William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
‘Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting.’ Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
So tell us, do you have some favorite bits of your own?
