“Fairy Tale is Form, Form is Fairy Tale”
1. According to K. Bernheimer, as fairy tales belong to the realm of classical literature, they are the source of many writing forms and techniques applied by representatives of both mainstream and avant-garde literary movements. Stating that fairy tales connect all people “in the act of living” (Bernheimer 71), she expresses the idea that they influence the way we perceive the world and react to it. These ideas seem to be well-grounded: the four elements mentioned by the author, namely “flatness, abstraction, intuitive logic, and normalized magic” (Bernheimer 64), are indeed found in both realistic and experimental literature, some of them prevailing over the rest in each particular case.
2. A great advantage of the fairy tales form is its simplicity: the characters are flat, the plot seems to unfold in a natural way despite the absence of cause-and-effect relations, and all the descriptions are devoid of any superfluous details. Such simplicity allows writers to express their thoughts in a very concise manner which makes their texts easier for understanding and also leaves much space for readers’ imagination.
“How to Write with Style”
1. Among K. Vonnegut’s tips about developing writing style, I have chosen the following ones: “Keep it simple”, “Have the guts to cut”, and “Pity the readers” (Vonnegut 66) since they seem useful for writing essays. Firstly, simple sentences often sound much more impressive and eloquent than long ones, “decorated” with many stylistic devices and thus looking artificial. Secondly, it is necessary to get rid of the sentences in which no new though is presented, since they make the text look repetitive. Thirdly, writers must make their texts as easy for readers’ comprehension as possible otherwise people may not be willing to read these texts.
2. Naturally, my environment has influenced both my language and writing: language is a natural phenomenon, and it is impossible to avoid social influence on your own language.
“The Ecstasy of Influence”
1. Lethem's support of plagiarism is mainly based on the idea that all literature is a collage since authors simply repeat the thoughts already expressed by their predecessors. However, such an argument sounds far-fetched, and it definitely cannot be carried over into academics: for example, writing an essay on some philosophical work, students need to dwell upon the main points contained in it which means that their essays indeed will be “a collage”; however; if they simply copy these points, they will not come to any conclusions of their own, and their work will make no sense.
2. As J. Lethem states, literature is nothing more than a mixture of allusions. Therefore, as authors do not create anything new, they need to make experiments with language so that the already known ideas sound original. Here we can speak about movie adaptations of books that often present the story in a new light adding some new details and not including the details found in the books. Naturally, the effects of the original story and its adaptation will be different depending on which story the reader/viewer likes more.
Works Cited
Bernheimer, Kate. “Fairy Tale is Form, Form is Fairy Tale.” 61-73. Web. 18 March 2016.
Lethem, Jonathan. “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism.” Harper’s Magazine (2007): 59-71. Web. 18 March 2016.
Vonnegut, Kurt. “How to Write with Style.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 24.2 (1980): 66-67. Web. 18 March 2016.
