After reading the chapter on "Black and Brown" in Victoria Finlay's Color, read the chapter on verbs in Constance Hale's Sin and Syntax.
Find one sentence in "Black and Brown" that embodies Hale's recommendation for writers to use dynamic verbs. Copy that sentence, and explain why Finlay's choice of verbs in the sentence is so effective.
"Every part of life has them, and in art, perhaps more obviously than anywhere else, it's shadows and the shit which make the light bits believable."
ReplyDeleteI picked this sentence because it embodied Hale's recommendation for writers to use dynamic verbs. This sentence is interesting because he is talking about non colors and somehow making them seem as if they have life to it. Although it is a simple sentence it made me think he was talking about a living thing but was referring to shadows he was able to do so by his choice of diction in the sentence which made it successful.
Guadalupe Munoz
In the book, Color, it states, “Perhaps, I thought, she may have tried out new blacks and browns” (pg. 81). I believe that this quote follows Hale’s advice upon dynamic verbs. I believe this because the verb “tried” is a state of action that can be used continuously rather than remaining as a stable verb. In this sentence the verb is being used to explain the action which is an active verb. Furthermore, Hale’s advice on dynamic verbs is that most writers replace as many “is” and are” in their sentences. In this sentence, it is very simple due to it being without any use of such extra words and giving a direct noun which is concludes as an active verb.
ReplyDelete“When this ink meets dampened blotting paper it doesn’t leak into the kind of multicolored spider’s web we see with modern fountain-pen inks-in fact the ink must not leak at all, since Chinese paintings are stretched onto scrolls by wetting them.” Finlay’s choice of verbs in this sentence follows the advice shared by Hale and grab the reader, “by the lapels”. The verbs meet and leak enable the reader to imagine the merging of ink and paper.
ReplyDeletePerfect!
Delete"From early times of both the Persians and the Chinese thought it was desirable to have ink that not only traveled seductively across the paper, but which also smelled wonderfully."(pg. 92)
ReplyDeletethis sentence is a perfect example of the recommendations Hale described. In this sentence both of the subjects in the sentence are being acted upon. the first dynamic case is when the Chinese and Persians "thought" and "was desirable". the second, being the ink "traveled seductively" and "smelled wonderfully". this sentence, in Hales words, "delivers the punch" the author is trying to use in conveying the way in which these people viewed their ink and it did so in an active voice.
"Traveled seductively" is a fantastic example of an active verb.
Delete"It was the end of the Ice Age in Europe and Homo Sapiens would have been living and hunting-and painting, of course-in a very cool world indeed." (pg.75)
ReplyDeleteThis sentence connects well with Hale's claims. This sentence perfectly shows the action being done by the subject. The use of "living" "hunting" and "painting" perfectly describes the living that Homo Sapiens would have had. Also, "have" is used in the sentence as a helping verb. This sentence meets with Hale's claim; The verbs are effectively used to help the reader visualize the actions Homo Sapiens would have taken.
The sentence I chose was, " I once saw an Afghan father painting his small son's eyes with kohl. He was doing it to protect the boy from conjunctivitis, he told me". This sentence proved to be effective to me because, there are transitive verbs within the sentence. In Sin and Syntax, Hale, explained that dynamic verbs do include some transitive verbs. I also believe that the word choice alone in the sentence already grabs ones attention or by the "lapels".
ReplyDelete"When it was boiling, the mucilage separated off, and the apprentices would sop it up by throwing bread into the vats: it must have smelled like a huge greasy fry-up." (Pg 96)
ReplyDeleteThis sentence best shows a great deal of active and dynamic use of verbs. It clearly gives the reader a vivid visual of the actions taking place at the time. It could have been written plainly stating that the mucilage merely boiled and made a mess that the apprentices had to clean up, but Finlay uses boiling, gives the visual of it separating and detailed how the apprentices sopped the mess up.
"Sop" is a great active verb here.
DeleteVictoria Finlay wrote in Color, “It recommends taking the bone of a camel, dipping it into the juice of the Eclipta prostrata (which is also called the tattoo plant because of the dark blue die that comes from it) and then burning it” (p.82).
ReplyDeleteFinlay sentence is effective because she adds -ing to the verbs dip and burn, when verbs are used as adjectives they are participles. As Hale explained, participles creates emphasis on the verb used. Using “dipping” and “burning” instead of dip and burn increases the activity in the sentence.
"And the bison in particular-each two meters long or more-are bristling with muscle and power." (pg. 74)
ReplyDeleteHales definition of dynamic verbs manifests itself in this sentence. As I'm reading, the image of a huffing bison animates in my mind when I come across the word "bristling". He is able to create vivid imagery with the manipulation of well chosen verbs that compliment the adjectives that follow it. The whole sentence, which was already very well written, comes to life with one single word.
"Bristling" is indeed a vivid verb.
Delete"Blackness is, after all, a description of what happens when all light is absorbed and when nothing is reflected back, so if you believe that there is no return from death then black is a marvellous symbol" (Pg 97).
ReplyDeleteIn this sentence, Finlay explained the scientific aspect of black color and used it to make her readers think and realize what the significance of wearing black on funerals is and how it relates to death- the inevitable. This is an excellent depiction of using dynamic words, Hale's claim, to attract the readers.
"In rural Shropshire I watched the icon painter Aidan Hart transfer his pencil sketch of the head of Christ to a gessoed panel - by tracing it onto the back of paper that had been rubbed with brown ochre; in Indonesia I watched artists sketch with charcoal before adding any paint to their Hindu story designs; in China I watched a calligrapher painstakingly grind his pine-soot ink onto his grandfather's ink stone before even selecting the paper he was to write on; in the National Gallery in London I stood for a long time in the near-darkness before Leonardo da Vinci's full-size cartoon of the Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist, drawn in charcoal and black and white chalk - soft materials to smooth in the highlights of the Christ Child's shoulder and the tenderness of a mother's face."
ReplyDeleteFinlay's choice of verbs in this sentence is so effective because he writes the artists and Leonardo da Vinci's painting in the active voice emphasizing the dynamic verbs such as "gessoed, tracing, had been rubbed, sketch, painstakingly grind, smooth" to focus on not only on the painting but the artists' every action in drawing them and looking at the minute detail of how Leonardo da Vinci's painting stands out.
Alyssa Obordo
Nice selection of verbs!
Delete"The Egyptians mummified their dead in a complicated process which involved pulling the brain through the nostrils with an iron hook, washing the body with incense and, in later dynasties, covering it with bitumen and linen." (pg 106)
ReplyDeleteThis quote is a perfect example of what Hale meant when stating that "Almost any sentence can be made active" (65). Though mummification was done hundreds and hundreds of years ago, with Finlay using the active voice, this because easy to visualize. Just about everyone who will read this book knows the basics of mummification but Finlay still adds details that are capable of making someone's stomach turn.
Nice work!
Delete“According to Pliny one of the fist artists was a young woman in the town of Corinth in Greece who one evening was weepily saying goodbye to her lover before he set out on a long journey” (Finlay, 78).
ReplyDeleteThis sentence connects with Hale’s recommendations for writers to use dynamic verbs. The word “was weepily” states an action being done. It can be used deeply, rather than just being a steady word. It describes how she shed tears, expressing her sadness she felt saying goodbye to her partner. Although it’s just a simple sentence I felt it had a deep meaning on how a person leaving for a while can have a lot of affect in our life. It may be for a short period of time, but it can feel like years for others.
“Armed security guards used to stand in those two rooms, forcing the men to strip and allow their clothes to be examined at the end of each shift to check they weren’t concealing valuable nuggets.” I chose this sentences because it embodies Hale’s recommendation to use dynamic verbs. Finlay’s choice of verbs in this sentence helps it become effective. Stand helps portray the actions of an armed security guard. Finlay could have used “be” but would simple. Forcing is the other word that helps the sentence become effective. Finlay could have used the word “telling” but it does not help portray the picture of armed security guards like the word forcing. It helps establish the power of the security guards. Examined helps build a picture of the narrow searching that was done. Dynamic verbs help describe what is going on and builds a stronger and effective sentence.
ReplyDelete"Of how black dye used to be sold by retired pirates in the Caribbean, how "pencil lead" was once so rare that armed security guards in Northern England used to strip search miners as they left after a long day in the heart of a hill, how white paint was a poison (but tantalizingly sweet tasting), but perhaps it is also the effect if black, gray and white which makes a sketch seem so complete."
ReplyDeleteThis long sentence connects to hale's expression of how important a verb is because you can tell how he feels about each color. No one would ever think to compare black dye to retired pirates. the way he describes the white paint as poison is definitely a negative connotation. His words have a power that helps relay is message about all the colors.
" Nowadays we can call the lead pencil"common with impunity" but, once this stuff was called so highly that people risked their lives to find it and steal it."
ReplyDeleteThis sentence explains that in todays society people are going out of their way to find things that might or might not be vulnerable to them. They might take things in as collectors, while others with continue to collect just because they have an obsession.
"I knocked on the door of what in summer is a tearoom and in winter is closed, and a woman almost toppled off her ladder." (pg. 85)
ReplyDeleteI chose this quote because I believe that this sentence displays the use of the necessary "is" and dynamic verbs well. Constance Hale talks about removing any unnecessary "is" in writing; however, "is a tearoom" and "is closed" are necessary. It directly connects the door to a tearoom or being closed. Coupling this with the dynamic verbs "knocked" and "toppled" gives the sentence more dimension.
"Toppled" is a great verb here. Most people would have just chosen "fell," but "toppled" makes it sound like the fall would have been from a great height and implies more of a disaster than the mere word "fall."
DeleteHeriberto Pina
ReplyDelete“Blackness is, after all, a description of what happens when all light is absorbed and when nothing is reflected back, so if you believe that there is no return from death then black is a marvelous symbol.”
As I came across the reading, I liked this sentence because it follows Hale’s recommendation on the use of dynamic verbs. I think it allows readers to get a good visual picture of the meaning of the sentence. It also gives an example that black often represents death and a sign of serious. Even though the sentence is simple, I believe it’s well written because of its meaningful message.
Although in Victoria Finlay's chapter "Black and Brown" she uses passive verbs almost constantly, I was able to find one sentence in which she refuses to do so.
ReplyDelete"The tree quite naturally protests at the invasion and forms little nutlike growths around the wasp holes, and it is these protective oak galls which (when collected before the wasp eggs hatch) form the basis of an intense black" (Finlay, 93).
Consyance Hale suggests that using active verbs makes one's writing "hop" (61). Hale states that "rich images develop from the capacity to observe subjects in action"(61). In Finlay's sentence the tree is protesting an invasion of wasp eggs (93). Using active verbs makes the tree come alive (more than it already is) in the writing.
Nice work. The personification of the tree "protesting" is indeed a great active verb.
DeleteIn the book "Color" the sentence is picked is, "They were the oldest European cave paintings known to modern science, and the Panel of the Horses represents one of the most astonishing uses of charcoal ever seen in prehistoric art (Winchester 76)."
ReplyDeleteIn the "Verb" chapter of Finlay's "Sin and Syntax", he talks about not being passive with verbs. He expressed that almost any sentence can be made an active sentence so that when you are writing a sentence to make it not passive but active and to go for it.
"Colors were for profession painters- who were rather sneered upon by the elite, as creating something necessary but vulgar" (Finaly 91).
ReplyDeleteI chose this sentences because I feel the strong verb sneered along side with the less attention grabbing verbs supports Hales idea of verb usage. Hales claims that sentences can be either active or passive; he also encourages writers to use active sentences by using verbs to excite or involve the reader.
“Brown has been such an abused color in terms of names: “drab” is now a definition of dullness but was once the technical term for a hue basking boringly on that middle line between olive and puce.” (p. 99 in eBook)
ReplyDeleteIn her book Color, Finlay is trying to bring the colors she is writing about to life. She is able to do this by applying the dynamic verbs “abused” and “basking” to the color brown. Brown is no longer just a color “between olive and puce” but something more that I can relate to since I know what it is like both to be abused and to bask. Finlay’s use of dynamic and relatable verbs makes it impossible to take the color brown for granted and makes her story much more interesting and exciting.
“In some cases the Ka might be kept busy for years, trotting sadly around the museums and art galleries of the world where its earthly remains are now smeared on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century canvases.” (p. 101 in eBook)
In this sentence, Finlay is dealing with death, and more accurately, dead bodies being used to make the color brown. Her use of the verb “smeared” captures the idea that paint made from dead human bodies is not an appetizing idea for most of us today. While the painters who used this in centuries past mostly seemed okay with the idea and the French at the time were even able to laugh a little about it, Finlay’s chosen verb definitely makes the use of such paint unpalatable.
"There were twelve complete bison, two headless ones, three boars, three red deer looking rather bedazzled and a wild horse" (Finlay, 74). This sentence underlines Hale's statement of how rich visual images develop the dimensional capacity to observe subjects in action. The use of the verb "bedazzled" in this sentence portrays how the red deer is visualized. Visual images allow the reader to picture these subjects in action as if they were to see it right in front of them, even with such simple actions as walking or climbing.
ReplyDelete“In 1868 a hunter, stalking birds or deer one day in the area near Santander between the the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains of northern Spain, stumbled across the entrance to a series of caves” (Finlay, 73). In this sentence past progressive is being used. The author is using past progressive to describe how the hunter was stalking birds or deer one day. The verb is effectively being used to help the reader picture the hunter watching the birds and deer and to picture how he stumbled across the entrance of caves.
ReplyDelete