Celebrating Language

The book's primary theme, the essential purpose it and the exercises it contains came into existence, is exploring and celebrating the near-infinite ways language can be used to convey story. Each exercise does exactly that—use language in a different, generally unexpected, often apparently playful way, to convey both event and meaning. At this point, it is essential to note the distinction between the two.

Throughout the book and in each exercise, no matter what linguistic technique the author applies, the same narrative points (setting, character, event, consequence) are communicated (for a more detailed outline of those points see "Part 1 Analysis"). In other words, while celebrating the flexibility of language and anchoring that celebration in consistent narrative facts, the author is exploring the relationship between style and substance, between interpretation and fact, with the various techniques he employs functioning as manifestations of the former and the...