Ben Marcus’s introduction to New American Short Stories immediately grabbed my attention. Having
studied English for three years, I sometimes forget the pleasure of stories and
miss the days when a story was only meant to “bloom inside you.” Often the
enjoyment is lost in the myriad of papers, close readings, and literary
analyses that make up an English major’s life. Not that these things are
unimportant, as Francine Prose points out in the first chapter of her book, Reading Like a Writer, as they teach
critical thinking and good form in writing. Yet Marcus talks about the life that
a writer infuses into a story through language, something that he demonstrates
in this very essay.
One of the things that most impressed me was Marcus’s
seamless manipulation of words and their meaning. For instance, he takes the
word “plot” in reference to a series of events in a story and likens it to a
plot of ground, which becomes like a stage within the reader that allows the
story to come alive. From here, Marcus uses the verb form of plot, suggesting
that the work of a story is to “conspire” and “withhold” information in order
to enliven a story. This manipulation of definitions not only takes the reader
from point to point in his argument, but also illustrates his idea of bringing
a story to life through the style of his writing. In other words, Marcus
performs what he is talking about as he writes his essay, thus delivering his
point through both explanation and example. Such a tactic reveals Marcus’s
talent as a writer.
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