Thursday 5 April 2012

A to Z Challenge - ORWELL'S THIRD LAW - E is for Easy

EASY AS PIE
Even with a calculator, or an old slide rule,
I could never get the ingredients
to add up to pie.
This April, for the Blogging from A to Z  Challenge, I am posting idioms, proverbs and examples of figurative language in accordance with Orwell's Third Law of sentence construction. ;) 


George Orwell says: 

WHEN WRITING A SENTENCE YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ASK YOURSELF:

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?


From Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures:


Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans and biscuits - all sitting angry, congealed and cold on the stove where Amma had left them. Usually, she kept my dinner warm for me until I got home from practice, but not today. I was in a lot of trouble.




Scratch and sniff novels are never going to work, authors need to craft sensational imagery:


Sweet but oh-so red, poor Zannah made a juicy filling for her cream puff dress.


Fly-light flour dusted every surface in the kitchen and the finger-sticking margarine wouldn't leave my hands alone, but just let it wait until I got to the rolling pin stage: I was going to teach that pastry a lesson.


Hunting down the car thief was as easy as pie: Wegman's, aisle two, second fridge, you couldn't miss them.




CAN YOU NAME A CHARACTER, IN A MOVIE OR IN LITERATURE, WHO LOVED TO COOK?

17 comments:

  1. No, but I would love to know... All I could think of was Fried Green Tomatoes. I think that's the name of the film.

    Great posting it got me thinking.

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    1. I loved that movie! Just the name of it made my mouth water ;)

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  2. Images are the soul of writing.

    I love Orwell's law.

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    1. Hi Damyanti
      I love Orwell's advice on constructing sentences. Each sentence is important in its own right.
      Imagery opens up so much more, for the reader, than simple words could ever do.

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  3. penelope cruz in woman on top, sweet romance!
    and your examples are enticing! love the food references! i will try it!

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    1. Hi Tara
      Penelope Cruz is an actress who can convince me she knows how to cook and that she loves cooking too.
      Thank you.
      I hope you have fun cooking up some imagery ;)

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  4. This is sad, but the last movie I watched where I recall baking was Bridesmaids. A great theme for the challenge. I look forward to future posts. (You had me at the pie. That looks similar to the crust of Hubby's Birthday Pie last year. A pure mess — I call my version rustic patchwork.)

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    Replies
    1. Bridesmaids was a fun movie.
      Pastry is a challenge. When it comes to your pie making skills, I bet your husband knew it was the thought that counts.
      The theme is keeping me on task. I'm enjoying writing the IDIOM posts, they are taking me half the time that the CHARACTERISATION posts took, last year.

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  5. I see the movie in my head, know the one character and can't remember the woman or the name of the movie...
    Johnny Deep he was a barber, a very weird barber and I think the movie had barber in it LOL..

    I'll have to go look now !


    Stopping by via the A - Z challenge link up. I am following you through GFC, twitter, and facebook.

    Feel free to stop by my blog at http://www.scatteredmusings.net/2012/04/buying-car/ (my combined b-d post)

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    1. That would be Johnny Depp ... not deep geezz

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    2. That sounds like Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd - he made some awfully tasty pies ;)

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  6. Now I want a scratch 'n' sniff novel.

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    1. :) Imagine the litigation when someone proved to be allergic. That would be messy, even before the lawyers got involved ;)

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  7. Replies
    1. Imaginary food is guilt free if a little less than satisfying :D

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  8. Yummy!!! Elizabeth Craig's Lulu novels feature the owners/chefs/staff of a bbq restaurant - really well done :)

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    1. That is a good shout. Tasty novels? I'm going to have to find one of Elizabeth Craig's to read.

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