Close Reading

I was discussing, with a friend, Mishima Yukio's prose style -- specifically, whether or not it might be characterised as beautiful. We were not focusing necessarily on stereotypically beautiful effects, but also on all that is atmospheric, lyrical and so on. My friend was saying that Mishima's style is largely neutral, though finely executed. I was looking for counter-examples to this and for some reason thought of the opening to The Temple of the Golden Pavilion ( Kinkakuji ). Having the book close to hand, I began to read out the first paragraphs.  Ever since my childhood, Father had often spoken to me about the Golden Temple. My birthplace was a lonely cape that projects into the Sea of Japan north-east of Maizuru. Father, however, was not born there, but at Shiraku in the eastern suburbs of Maizuru. He was urged to join the clergy and became the priest of a temple on a remote cape; in this place he married and begot a child, who was myself. "Hmm. Maybe you'r...

My name is Quentin S. Crisp and I am a writer of fiction, essays, and even poetry. I am, rather tentatively, starting a new blog: this one.  The concept is fairly simple: I will analyse samples of language that interest me for various reasons, etymological, grammatical, social, philosophical, semantic, and so on.  I've worked for some years as a proofreader and editor and I am a naturally slow reader, so I tend to home in on linguistic details. Some people can find this tendency pedantic, but on this blog I intend to treat it as and make of it a virtue.  The English language has been, for many decades now, neglected and abused. I hope to do something, at least, however modest and ultimately futile, to resist that general trend. I am also very interested in the relationship between language and thought.  My published works are listed here .  If you would like to support me, my Patreon account is here .