Eric Demay

I had been wanting to try this writing exercise based on David Foster Wallace’s literary style for awhile now. The following [true] story seemed like an apt one for me to try it out.

0. Begin with an idea, a string of ideas.

As I was biking yesterday, I crashed into a taxi door. I fell and broke my finger.

1. Use them in a compound sentence.

As I was biking yesterday, a taxi door was flung open in my path, the crash resulting in a broken finger.

2. Add rhythm with a dependent clause.

As I was biking yesterday, a taxi door was flung open in my path, and though riding fast, the consequent fall resulted only in a broken finger.

3. Elaborate using a complete sentence as interrupting modifier.

As I was biking yesterday, a taxi door was flung open in my path, and though riding fast, the consequent fall—15 feet across the pavement— resulted only in a broken finger.

4. Append an absolute construction or two.

As I was biking yesterday, a taxi door was flung open in my path, and though riding fast, the consequent fall—15 feet across the pavement—only resulted in a broken finger, the taxi driving off with a clunky rear door, my evening spent at the hospital.

5. Paralell-o-rize your structure (turn one noun into two).

As I was biking yesterday, a taxi door was flung open in my path, and though riding fast, the consequent crash and fall—15 feet across the pavement—only resulted in a broken finger, the taxi driving off with a clunky rear door, my wednesday evening ruined and spent at the emergency clinic.

STOP HERE IF YOU ARE A MINIMALIST, WRITING COACH, OR JAMES WOOD

6. Adjectival phrases: lots of them.

As I was biking through breezy rush-hour traffic yesterday, a careless cab door was flung open in my narrow car bound path, and though riding fast, the inevitable and consequent crash and fall—15 feet across the rutty pavement—only resulted in a fractured finger, the taxi driving off with a clunky rear door, my whole wednesday evening ruined and spent at the emergency clinic.

7. Throw in an adverb or two.

As I was biking through breezy rush-hour traffic yesterday, a careless cab door was flung widely open in my narrow car bound path, and though riding fast, the inevitable and consequent crash and fall—15 feet across the rutty pavement—only resulted in a fractured finger, the taxi driving off with a slightly clunky rear door, my whole wednesday evening ruined and spent at the emergency clinic.

8. Elaboration — mostly unnecessary. Here you’ll turn nouns phrases into longer noun phrases; verbs phrases into longer verb phrases. This is largely a matter of synonyms and prepositions. Don’t be afraid to be vague! Ideally, these elaborations will contribute to voice. […] The goal here is word count.

As I was riding my fixie down Sainte-Catherine street through breezy rush-hour traffic yesterday, a careless cab door was flung widely open right in my narrow car bound path, and though riding fast, the inevitable and consequent crash and fall—15 feet across the rutty pavement—resulted only in a fractured finger accompanied by a side dish of rough scrapes on the right elbow and lower back, the more fortunate party of this brutal encounter drove away with a slightly clunky rear door, my whole wednesday evening ruined and spent devoted to waiting with an overly swollen right hand at emergency clinic.

STOP HERE IF YOU ARE NOT WRITING PARODY

9. Give it that Wallace shine. Replace common words with their oddly specific, scientific-y counterparts. Finally, go crazy with the possessives.

As I was riding my Harris Cyclery hubbed fixie down Sainte-Catherine street through breezy rush-hour traffic yesterday, a careless Camry cab door was flung widely open right in my narrow car bound path, and though riding fast, the inevitable and consequent crash and fall—15 feet across the rutty pavement—resulted only in a fractured annular accompanied with a side dish of rough scrapes on the right elbow and lower back, the more fortunate party of this brutal encounter drove away with a slightly clunky rear door, my whole wednesday evening ruined and spent devoted to waiting with an overly swollen right hand at the Hotel-Dieu emergency clinic.

• UPDATE Following from the Kottke post, another try out of growing sentences with John August. Other examples in his comments.

Two weeks ago, in the light of the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, all media were recounting the events, putting together then-and-now type stories and interviews, editorials of all kinds criticizing the politics of the time, the censoring and silencing that leads to the ignorance of these events by most of the younger generation. Considering all these discussions, I’m quite surprised we haven’t heard more about this following story in the media.

The NYT photography blog (suitably named the Lens blog) has published an initial article about the Tianamen tank man pictures, the world-famous photographs—there are four of them, all very similar—that have carried and stood for the confrontation up to this day. The article discusses mostly the differences in composition of each shot that thus convey a different angle of the event in a photojournalistic sense.

Comes along reporter Terri Jones. He was there on June 5th 1989 in Tiananmen Square and he too had shot the famous tank man, though somewhat inadvertently, in his mind a snapshot of the event among others. After developing the films, with the event then already extensively covered, he simply let it at that, filing the shot amongst the others of the day in his personal archives. It’s only when he read the blog post this week that he decided it was time to share it publicly. Of course, the Lens blog celebrates this revelation with an follow-up article, Jones recounting the story behind it.

In a time much before the prevalence and instantness of digital cameras, a different angle of such a historical scene helps contextualize and correctly recount the event. The relevance and insight of such a photograph is critical. As we can now see, Tank Man is standing there long before the tanks arrives, steady, bags in hand, waiting. In contrast, others are fleeing the scene, hurried. The confrontation is an idea that has yet happened. Tank man, like the tank driver, like the overlooking photographers at the Beijing Hotel, have to idea what is about the happen, how the scene will unfurl.

If released in 1989, I doubt this photograph would have made headlines. The others taken from the hotel balcony, are much more poignant, evocative of the clash on Tiananmen Square. A single man against a of tanks, you it can’t get better than that. Nevertheless, remembering the massacre 20 years later, when all that seems left are those same 4 pictures that we see over and over, this “new” picture feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s when I see stuff like this that I want to drop everything and become a photojournalist. Cliché but true: history is not what happened but what is remembered.

• Big picture has a larger shot of it and other shots of the day.
• Youtube: a video mere seconds later, the confrontation between Tank Man and the tanks.

3 raisons pourquoi le Bridge Burner, c’est hot (oh, v’là un calembour gratis):

• 1. On fête la Saint-Jean sous un viaduc, exploitant les richesses spatiales du bâti public urbain
• 2. On fête la Saint-Jean collectivement avec des DJ comme maîtres de cérémonie, dansant énergiquement sur des mélodies et rythmes qui façonnent notre culture contemporaine électronique
• 3. On fête la Saint-Jean sans les Guy A. Lepage de ce monde