You Go Girl

I wish I had more time to read this book. I was reading a couple days ago, and was particularly impressed by the phrasing that Larson used, and I figured I would share it with you guys. Bear with me.

As I’ve been reading, I have started to pick up on some things that we have talked about in class, and things I’ve noticed about my own writing. Lately I’ve been working on the “creative” part… It’s the little things that show craft, proving the author’s talent and skill.

During this particular section of the book, Larson is setting the stage for the creation of The World’s Fair. They have just hired a “landscape architect” named Olmstead, who is known for many parks and projects, and is lobbying for Jackson Park to be the location of Chicago’s World Fair. There were two particular quotes that struck me in the description/ characterization of Olmstead.

The first quote could have been a coincidence, but the physical description of the “landscape Architect” who is in charge of plants, etc, mirrors the image of a flower, with the character of Burnham being, “struck by the slightness of [Olmstead’s] frame, which seemed structurally insufficient to support so massive a skull” (Larson 52). This description, to me, is a clear description of the gardener (although Olmstead would cringe at that description of his duties) as a plant. All I can picture when I read this description is how the stem of the flower seems so skinny, and so fragile, compared to the fullness and largeness of the head of the flower. The characterization continues, describing Olmsteads hair, stating that the hair was “trimmed at the bottom with a tangled white beard” (Larson 52). Using words such as trimmed and tangled is especially neat in this description of the “landscape architect” with images of trimmed hedges, and tangled vines coming to mind.

As I continued reading, I was impressed with the attention to detail, and how specific Larson was being with his word choice. My mind began to wander slightly, and I was considering the fact that this was probably an isolated incidence of the writer being punny. But I was wrong. The wit continued, although this time the comparison to plants was explicit. When Larson describes Olmstead’s writing in the reports in favor of Jackson Park, it is stated that the writing isn’t as flowery (Ooh! A pun of my own! Go Jess!) as his work in creating landscaping projects, and that his, “sentences wandered through the report like morning glory through the pickets of a fence” (Larson 54). Although this example is more explicit, it still shows craft, and attention to detail, which is way awesome to pick up on as you are reading.