Style and Tone

1
Style and Tone

• Style relates to an authors use of vocabulary,
  level of diction, sentence structure, arrangement
  of ideas. It is a combination of two elements
  the idea to be expressed and the individuality of
  the author (Style 487).
• Tone shows the authors attitude toward his or
  her subject. A tone might be formal, informal,
  intimate, solemn, sombre, playful, serious,
  ironic, condescending (Tone 503).
• Editors Kennedy and Gioia suggest that One of
  the clearest indications of tone in a story is
  the style in which it is written (139).

2
Examples of Style

• French writer Raymond Queneau published one of
  the greatest works on style in 1947 in his
  amusing book, Exercises in Style.
• No lesson I can think of can give a better idea
  of what style is than Queneaus own examples
  might do. In his book, he begins with a simple
  story and then rewrites the story 99 times, using
  a different style each time.

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Queneaus original story

• On a crowded bus at midday, Raymond Queneau
  observes one man accusing another of jostling him
  deliberately. When a seat is vacated, the first
  man appropriates it. Later, in another part of
  town, Queneau sees the man being advised by a
  friend to sew another button on his overcoat
  (Queneau cover blurb).
• Here follow several examples of Queneaus 1947
  exercises in style, as brilliantly translated by
  Barbara Wright in 1958.

4
Notation

• In the S bus, in the rush hour. A chap of
  about 26, felt hat with a cord instead of a
  ribbon, neck too long, as if someones been
  having a tug-of-war with it. People getting off.
  The chap in question gets annoyed with one of the
  men standing next to him. He accuses him of
  jostling him every time anyone goes past. A
  snivelling tone which is meant to be aggreeeive.
  When he sees a vacant seat he throws himself on
  to it.
• Two hours later. I meet him in the Cour de
  Rome, in front of the gare Saint-Lazare. Hes
  with a friend whos saying You ought to get an
  extra button put on your overcoat. He shows him
  where (at the lapels) and why (19-20).

5
Precision

• In a bus of the S-line, 10 metres long, 3
  wide, 6 high, at 3 km. 600 m. from its starting
  point, loaded with 48 people, at 12.17 p.m., a
  person of the masculine sex aged 27 years 3
  months and 8 days, 1m. 72 cm. tall and weighing
  65 kg. and wearing a hat 35 cm. in height round
  the crown of which was a ribbon 60 cm. long,
  interpellated a man aged 48 years 4 months and 3
  days, 1 m. 68 cm. tall and weighing 77 kg., by
  means of 14 words whose enunciation lasted 5
  seconds and which alluded to some involuntary
  displacements of from 15 to 20 mm. Then he went
  and sat down about 1 m. 10 cm. away.
• 57 minutes later he was 10 metres away from
  the suburban entrance to the gare Saint-Lazare
  and was walking up and down over a distance of 30
  m. with a friend aged 28, 1 m. 70 cm. tall and
  weighing 71 kg. who advised him in 15 words to
  move by 5 cm. in the direction of the zenith a
  button which was 3 cm. in diameter (37-38).

6
Passive

• It was midday. The bus was being got into by
  passengers. They were being squashed together. A
  hat was being worn on the head of a young
  gentleman, which hat was encircled by a plait and
  not by a ribbon. A long neck was one of the
  characteristics of the young gentleman. The man
  standing next to him was being grumbled at by the
  latter because of the jostling which was being
  inflicted on him by him. As soon as a vacant seat
  was espied by the young gentleman it was made the
  object of his precipitate movements and it became
  sat down upon.
• The young gentleman was later seen by me in
  front of the gare Saint-Lazare. He was clothed in
  an overcoat and was having a remark made to him
  by a friend who happened to be there to the
  effect that it was necessary to have an extra
  button put on it (72-73).
• Passive voice is created by combining any
  form of the verb to be the past participle
  of a verb The gentleman was seen.

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Probabilist

• The contacts between inhabitants of a large
  town are so numerous that one can hardly be
  surprised if there occasionally occurs between
  them a certain amount of friction which generally
  speaking is of no consequence. It so happened
  that I was recently present at one of these
  unmannerly encounters which generally take place
  in the vehicles intended for the transport of
  passengers in the Parisian region in the rush
  hours. There is not in any case anything
  astonishing in the fact that I was a witness of
  this encounter because I frequently travel in
  this fashion. On the day in question the incident
  was of the lowest order, but my attention was
  especially attracted by the physical aspect and
  the headgear of one of the protagonists of this
  miniature drama. This was a man who was still
  young, but whose neck was of a length which was
  probably above the average and whose hat-ribbon
  had been replaced by a plaited cord. Curiously
  enough I saw him again two hours later engaged in
  listening to some advice of a sartorial order
  which was being given to him by a friend in the
  company of whom he was walking up and down,
  rather nonchalantly I should have said.
• There was not much likelihood now that a
  third encounter would take place, and the fact is
  that from that day to this I have never seen the
  young man again, in conformity with the
  established laws of probability (184-185).

8
Telegraphic

• BUS CROWDED STOP YNGMAN LONGNECK
  PLAITENCIRCLED HAT APOSTROPHISES UNKNOWN
  PASSENGER UNAPPARENT REASON STOP QUERY FINGERS
  FEET HURT CONTACT HEEL ALLEGED PURPOSELY STOP
  YNGMAN ABANDONS DISCUSSION PROVACANT SEAT STOP
  1400 HOURS PLACE ROME YNGMAN LISTENS SARTORIAL
  ADVICE FRIEND STOP MOVE BUTTON STOP SIGNED
  ARCTURUS (123).

9
Surprises

• How tightly packed we were on that bus
  platform! And how stupid and ridiculous that
  young man looked! And what was he doing? Well, if
  he wasnt actually trying to pick a quarrel with
  a chap whoso he claimed! The young fop! kept on
  pushing him! And then he didnt find anything
  better to do than to rush off and grab a seat
  which had become free! Instead of leaving it for
  a lady!
• Two hours after, guess whom I met in front of
  the gare Saint-Lazare! The same fancy-pants!
  Being given some sartorial advice! By a friend!
• Youd never believe it! (26)

10
Gastronomical

• After slowly roasting in the browned butter
  of the sun I finally managed to get into a
  pistachio bus which was crawling with customers
  as an overripe cheese crawls with maggots. Having
  paid my far, I noticed among all these noodles a
  poor fish with a neck as long as a stick of
  celery and a loaf surmounted by a ridiculous
  donkeys dinner. This unsavory character started
  to beef because a chap was pounding the joints of
  his cheeses to pulp. But when he found that he
  had bitten off more than he could chew, he
  quailed like a lily-livered dunghill-cock and
  bolted off to stew in his own juice.
• I was digesting my lunch going back in the
  bus when I saw this half-baked individual in
  front of the buffet of the gare Saint-Lazare with
  a chap of his own kidney who was giving him the
  fruit of his experience on the subject of
  garnishing his coating, with particular reference
  to a cheese plate (177-178).

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Retrograde

• You ought to put another button on your
  overcoat, his friend told him. I met him in the
  middle of the Cour de Rome, after having left him
  rushing avidly towards a seat. He had just
  protested against being pushed by another
  passenger who, he said, was jostling him every
  time anyone got off. This scraggy young man was
  the wearer of a ridiculous hat. This took place
  on the platform of an S bus which was full that
  particular midday (25).

12
You Know

• Well, you know, the bus arrived, so, you
  know, I got on. Then I saw, you know, a citizen
  who, you know, caught my eye, sort of. I mean,
  you know, I saw his long neck and I saw the plait
  round his hat. Then he started to, you know,
  rave, at the chap next to him. He was, you know,
  treading on his toes. Then he went and, you know,
  sat down.
• Well, you know, later on, I saw him in the
  Cour de Rome. He was with a, you know, pal, and
  he was telling him, you know, the pal was You
  ought to get another button put on your coat.
  You know (85).

13
Haiku

• Summer S long neck
• plait hat toes abuse retreat
• station button friend (139)

14
Recognizing Style

• Queneaus examples show a few of the choices
  writers have for expression of ideas. The style
  of each author is distinctive. Even we amateurs
  have styles of our own. We may write more
  formally to a stranger, more casually to a
  friend, for example. We may prefer some words
  and carefully avoid others. We may opt for
  special sentence structures (as I just did with
  the three parallel sentences above beginning We
  may.) Each writer establishes his or her own
  manner of expression. Some writers are so unique
  that their writing is almost instantly
  recognized, just as the symphony of a particular
  composer might be.

15
Parody of Style

• For several years now, amateurs have been
  encouraged to enter contests parodying the style
  of particular writers. Two easily imitated
  writers, because each has such a distinctive
  style, are William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway.
  Here follow two examples from contest winners

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William Faulkner

• Pile On Knowing knows before hearing hears,
  recollection exudes from the congealed
  entanglement, emasculate in the indomitable odor
  of mansweat remembering before knowing hands
  splayed on bended knees, semicrouched in rapt
  immobility, forwardleaning into the ponderous
  nocturnal autumn air, in furious anticipation of
  arrested inertia, incipient savagery, luminous in
  the brooding dusk-dark forwardmoving
  preemptorily with the sound, an inviolate
  sonorous command, refusing abnegation, compelling
  allegiance, doomed in the primordial obdurate
  masculinity receiving the thrusted leather
  oblong not-trophy, neither chalice, but rather
  palpable symbol of insatiable honor, impregnable,
  invincible but ephemeral viscera thrusted, arms
  engulfing as a lover's embrace, but futile
  forwardmoving with escalating fury inexorably
  toward the armor-clad foe, nonapparitional,
  voracious, implacable, intractable, incorrigible,
  and girded for the assault in resplendent
  triumph arrested in stark, abrupt and utter
  abrogation of motion, profound dissolution,
  sudden and complete and now cohered with the
  hard, immutable earth with the penetrant
  whistling infiltrating through the laboriously
  unlimbering extrication of virile man-flesh to
  the abject fury of disembodied surrender and
  then, with resolute, authoritative finality, the
  hearing "second down."
• -- Robin Blake, Winner of the 1998 Faux
  Faulkner contest

17
Ernest Hemingway

• TWO AND A HALF STARS
• Inside Harry's Bar American Grill I shook the
  rain off the way a dog would shake the rain off
  if dogs were allowed inside Harry's Bar
  American Grill, or if I allowed myself the use of
  metaphor. But they do not, and I do not, and this
  one must have been a stray.
• The place was crowded and full of smoke and
  people smoking. At the bar three men in uniform
  were linking arms and singing war songs, and the
  air was thick with the smell of wet leather - or
  else Harry had hired a new chef. The men were
  boys, really, too young to remember old wards and
  too short to ever think that their knees could be
  targets and not just something to sit on and lap
  dance.
• The place was crowded and there were no empty
  tables. A forceful looking girl sat alone at a
  table near the kitchen. . . .
• "May I join you?" I asked the forceful girl.
• "Only if you are famous," the forceful girl said.
  
• "I am a well-known food critic," I said. "I am
  here to review the food for the Star."
• "Kansas City or Toronto?"
• "I do not remember, but that's not important.
  What is important is the atmosphere, and I give
  it three stars."
• "Not four?"

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Hemingway continued

• "No, there are tourists here, and they are not
  aficionados. Let us order wine now, and
  appetizers, and Pasta Fatta in Casa, and wine."
• "You already said wine."
• "You can never have enough wine."
• Soon a waiter came, and though he was clearly
  troubled by nada he asked what we would have. I
  told him, and the forceful girl said she was
  fully capable of ordering by herself. Then there
  was a shout and the singing stopped and the
  smoking stopped. "Get down," I told the forceful
  girl. She struggled, but I held her down for her
  own good. It was going to be bad. The tourist
  with the flit gun had made the mistake of
  squirting the oldest waiter, the one who had gone
  84 days now without getting a tip. I got down on
  the floor beside the forceful girl. Everyone in
  the room waited to see what would happen.
  Suddenly our waiter appeared. "I am so sorry," he
  said. "We are all out of Pasta Fatta in Casa.
  Would you care to order something else?"
• "No," I said, and removed another half star from
  my notebook. "Kansas City or Toronto?" the
  forceful girl asked.
• "It does not matter. Especially now," I said.
• -- James Plath, Harrys Bar American Grill 1999
  Hemingway Imitation Contest

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Writing about Style and Tone

• Style conveys an authors tone, or attitude
  toward the characters and events of a story. The
  two are inextricably linked. In writing about
  style, consider diction (word choice), sentence
  structure -- pattern and length -- punctuation,
  imagery, sound, or figures of speech.
• Tone conveys the authors feelings. How might an
  authors style, then, show tone?

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• Works Cited

Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature
An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.
New York Longman, 1999. 137-141. Plath, James.
Queneau, Raymond. Exercises in Style. Barbara
Wright, trans. New York New Directions,
1981. Style. A Handbook to Literature. Holman,
C. Hugh and William Harmon, eds. New York
MacMillan, 1986.