In Praise of the Non Sentence

[Joseph Tracy]

So I did get a library copy of Klinkenborg’s Timothy,…
I opened randomly to pg 18 at the start of a new section

The true Secret?( no actual verb)…Walk Through the holes in their attention. Easier at my speed than at any faster rate. ( no verb)……..
..Quickness draws their eye. Entangles their attention. ( No subject)

The humans talk to me. Talk and talk. ( no subject)  
   
in these examples he is using a period as an extra emphatic comma.


Here is another form

Mr. Churton walks through the garden, book in hand. Swallows hawk the hedges behind him. Rustle of the Summer Wind accross the Bright Sky. Sheep’s bells, a calf’s bawling caught in the breeze. Rill of birdsong. Mr. Churton glances down at me.

The 1st 2 and last sentences are standard. The other 3 flow and elaborate the scene elegantly but are not sentences. They are  noun phrases.

I could find more if this does not convince. I am not arguing for or against the minimal Subject /Verb sentence structure, just showing that non traditional sentences are not always long and difficult or particularly experimental.



> On Apr 18, 2016, at 2:20 PM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I hate to contradict you Joseph but I just had a look at the first three paragraphs (Look inside!) of Timothy and even though the sentences are short they are quite conventional. From the first six sentences (1st paragraph) four are very normal subject-verb-sentences. The 2nd paragraph begins: "Ground breaks away. May wind shivers in my ears. My legs churn (...). I look down on bean tops." 
> 
> In Elmore Leonard's Maximum Bob there's the beginning of one chapter (7) told from the pov of an alligator that's better written in my eyes, regarding the limitations of the animal in question. 
> 
> 2016-04-18 16:31 GMT+02:00 Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>:
>  A couple yars ago I got a book, a deeply delightful meditation on the natural world as it might be experiencd by another non- human being.
> Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile by Verlyn Klinkenborg.
> 
> Timothy turns out to be a female tortoise and was a real “pet” for a clergyman/amateur naturalist .
> The unique thing about the writing is the dipensing with the need for subject verb ( optional object)  sentence structures. There are many sentences in Timothy  that are simply filling in details about the topic, place or time being observed. Sentences without a subject , or without a verb. Sentences with lists of gerunds or sentences with lists of nouns and adverb phrases. This had to be allowed because the whole thing is told from the tortoise's point of view and nobody knows what kind of grammatic rules apply in the reptilian mind. The reading flows beautifully and lucidly without these rules. As a matter of fact, after the first chapter I thought it would make a good read aloud, so Priscilla and I took turns reading it in the evenings or when we had a snack or went for coffee. The meaning flowed elegantly and without strain. For me the beauty of this book suggests that our adherence to the sentence can be inhibiting and is clearly not indispensable.
> 
> 
> 
> > On Apr 18, 2016, at 6:52 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > "I assert that any sort of sound sentence is superior to any non-sentence because a sentence contains more meaning than a non-sentence."
> >
> > It's like a postgraduate seminar in circular reasoning, confusion, and self-satisfaction just to watch Murnane fail to support that assertion. A thousand words later, it's actually *less* clear what it might mean.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Apr 17, 2016 at 10:37 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > An infuriating essay I mentioned here a little while ago has had its
> > paywall removed.
> >
> > The (hugely respected) author spends the first few paragraphs arguing
> > that Pynchon and Frank Kermode wouldn't recognise a grammatically
> > correct sentence if they stumbled over it.
> >
> > https://meanjin.com.au/essays/in-praise-of-the-long-sentence/
> > -
> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> >
> 
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> 

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