Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Psycho-Genic

I was daydreaming the other day about all those cool books they used to have back at the DH that drive people insane (or plays, in the case of The King in Yellow). If you wanted to write one of those, how would you go about it? Here are some of my ideas.
  1. Meter - Use a hidden but consistent meter, varied in places to create emphasis or alter mood.
  2. Patterns - Create themes that loop in ways that almost create a pattern, but don't quite work. Create a sense of wrongness.
  3. Ambiguity - Write sentences with multiple meanings laced into whole paragraphs of the same, so the possibilities multiply.
  4. Mystery - Give it a feeling of otherworldliness, like an esoteric religion. Create the impression that the careful reader is getting some kind of secret enlightenment to encourage contemplation.
Okay, those are my thoughts. Granted, implementing them is much easier said than done. What do you think?

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