“Creative Style”
Critique: Zadie Smith
Creative
style is far different than its companions, official and plain, solely, in my
opinion, because of its freedom, its infinite vision, particularly when paired
with the fictional novel. There really
are no significant or harsh boundaries required of the creative style,
similarly with fiction literature, and it is free to incorporate all styles into
one; an exquisite example of this use would be in the writing of White Teeth
by Zadie Smith. Her story mainly follows
two families, the Joneses and the Iqbals, as they navigate the contemporary
world of living as a human being. There
are a handful of perspectives that are presented throughout the novel, but they
all connect in the very end, both literally and figuratively. This freedom allows Smith to share her
message or story in a way that she finds most effective. She intelligently chooses which styles to
use, where, and how. This is what leads
Smith to spread her message; she can speak to anyone who picks up the novel and
reads, simply through her book. Smith
takes on the challenge of using creative style, so she can teach and delight,
the foundation of literature studies.
For
our view, we will begin with readability statistics to get a formal, albeit
superficial, basis for Smith’s writing.
There were two specific excerpts from separate sections of the book that were analyzed, and they can give us a workable
range of readability to get a sense of the novel overall and where Smith’s writing
can stretch. The Simple Measure of
Gobbledygook, also known as SMOG, offers approximate required years of
education in order to comprehend the reading; White Teeth’s excerpts
scored 11.02 to 16.78. As for the Flesch
Reading Ease, it scores between 0 and 100—the higher values indicate an easier
read while the lower values imply higher difficulty. Smith’s Ease score fell between 35.13 and
60.12. These arbitrary numbers actually give
us some insight into how readers will take to the novel. For instance, the SMOG results show that
Smith’s work could be taken well with High School to College-educated
individuals, and the Ease score shows a standard to difficult comprehension.
A
deeper dive into Smith’s language shows her use of all three styles in various
ways. For example, she has a fantastic
way of distinguishing characters and their development. Some characters, like the Chalfen family, are
known as intellectuals and can be picked out easily by their dialogue. They use a lot of official style strategies
like longer, more complex sentences with a large, sophisticated vocabulary,
like specific botanical terms or science strategies. In addition, when Smith starts detailing a
memory, or flashback, or even a background description, she tends to write in a
more official to plain style, sort of like a news or blog article. However, when Smith starts exploring more
creatively, readers start to become more engaged. The creativeness is what is real to readers
and what truly speaks to them. There is
a plethora of figurative and creative language such as diazeugma, expletives to
catch attention and for emphasis, epithets, appositives, similes, and so
on. This kind of language is what sets
creativity apart. Official and plain
styles follow guidelines and seem to retain less emotion or humanity; they are
monotone. Creativity lets humans express
themselves in a way they see fit. It is
colorful, it is raw, it is honest.
There
is a true beauty to creative style; it can attract so many people, readers, and
writers alike, and offers just as many insights and evaluations. Official and plain styles may get to the
point faster, if you will, and are professional or universal to a point where
it may be masking a writer’s unique voice and visions. With creative styles, there is the potential to
be limitless in understanding and influence.
It becomes a more intimate experience between audience, text, and
author, and it never stops growing—the creativity, the discourse, the ability
to reach more and more people each in their own way.
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