moeru_gumi

moeru_gumi t1_jb6i901 wrote

Yes, and if a city of 10 million can do it, it is possible. Humanity has found a way to do it. It can be implemented in other places if we actually would want it and accept that it’s possible.

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moeru_gumi t1_j1g7td6 wrote

Keep in mind that A. A. Milne, who wrote Winnie the Pooh, was born in 1882.

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This reddit thread gathers some information that chapters starting with "In Which Our Hero Goes To Have a Tea Party" etc etc. is a style from the 1700s and 1800s.

https://www.reddit.com/r/whatstheword/comments/8t9hjr/wtw_for_chapter_titles_that_all_start_with_in/

When he had stories read to him as a child, they could have easily been from the 1700s, like Winnie The Pooh, Sherlock Holmes, The Wind in the Willows, and A Christmas Carol are read to us and are over 100 years old now. When he wrote chapters in Pooh that describe the plot in the chapter title, he was probably doing it as a sort of quaint throwback to his own childhood reading. When it bothered you in your childhood, you were reacting to a nearly three hundred year old writing trope.

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moeru_gumi t1_j1eu8iu wrote

I’m the opposite, which is fascinating. I feel like it’s poorly constructed and egotistical, like the author thinks so highly of their prose they think it’s poetic, and are just pooping it out onto the page without editing or any concern for how the reader will have to do a lot of work to determine who’s talking. It feels like a very intimate stream of consciousness straight out of the author/narrator.

I react very badly to this, because rather than reading a story, I feel like either I’ve been handed a journal of the author’s personal thoughts or they are just talking directly into my face endlessly. I find it an imposition to have to figure out what’s dialogue and what’s just internal narration/description. And an author who wants me to do that much work must think very highly of themself and who do they think they are?

It’s fascinating that you like it, it really shows that style is so personal.

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moeru_gumi t1_j1etgf6 wrote

Chapter titles.

For some reason they’ve fallen out of favor. Or else people are just lazy. But a chapter title can and should increase anticipation of what’s coming, and help you recall it later. Of course the chapter titles in Lord of the Rings are the most perfect example I can think of for this, but who can say they aren’t filled with interest when they read a chapter is titled “Shadows of the Past” or “Many Partings”?

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