Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve
内容简介
There’s a famous piece of writing advice—offered by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and myriad writers in between—not to use -ly adverbs like “quickly” or “fitfully.” It sounds like solid advice, but can we actually test it? If we were to count all the -ly adverbs these authors used in their careers, do they follow their own advice compared to other celebrated authors? What’s more, do great books in general—the classics and the bestsellers—share this trait?
In Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve, statistician and journalist Ben Blatt brings big data to the literary canon, exploring the wealth of fun findings that remain hidden in the works of the world’s greatest writers. He assembles a database of thousands of books and hundreds of millions of words, and starts asking the questions that have intrigued curious word nerds and book lovers for generations: What are our favorite authors’ favorite words? Do men and women write differently? Are bestsellers getting dumber over time? Which bestselling writer uses the most clichés? What makes a great opening sentence? How can we judge a book by its cover? And which writerly advice is worth following or ignoring?
Blatt draws upon existing analysis techniques and invents some of his own. All of his investigations and experiments are original, conducted himself, and no math knowledge is needed to understand the results. Blatt breaks his findings down into lucid, humorous language and clear and compelling visuals. This eye-opening book will provide you with a new appreciation for your favorite authors and a fresh perspective on your own writing, illuminating both the patterns that hold great prose together and the brilliant flourishes that make it unforgettable.
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作者简介
Ben Blatt is a former staff writer for Slate and The Harvard Lampoon who has taken his fun approach to data journalism to topics such as Seinfeld, mapmaking, The Beatles, and Jeopardy! His previous book, co-written with Eric Brewster, is I Don't Care if We Never Get Back, which follows the duo’s quest to go on the mathematically optimal baseball road trip, traveling 20,000 miles to a game in all thirty ballparks in thirty days without planes. Blatt’s work has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and Deadspin.
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目录
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1. Using Sparingly 9
2. He Wrote, She Wrote 31
3. Searching for Fingerprints 59
4. Write by Example 83
5. Guiltier Pleasures 105
6. U.K. vs. U.S. 121
7. Cliches, Repeats, and Favorites 143
8. How to Judge a Book by Its Cover 177
9. Beginnings and Endings 197
Epilogue 217
Acknowledgments 221
Notes 223
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读书文摘
简洁风格是海明威有意的选择。他曾在给编辑的一封信中写道：“葛底斯堡演说如此之短，实非偶然。写作和飞行、数学、物理学一样有章可循，遵循的法则不可动摇。”海明威坚信，作品应尽可能精简，只留最核心的部分，多余的文辞只会损害作品。
在有关文学的传说中，史上最好的故事之一只有区区六个单词：For sale： baby shoes， never worn（售：婴儿鞋，全新）。这是“少即是多”的最佳范例，人们经常将其归功于海明威。 这几个单词是否真为海明威所写已无从考证，但有一点可以确定——这个故事写于1991年。
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