April 29, 2013

Yarn = Y: Blogging from A to Z

Only two more days left in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Of course those two days are Y and Z. No small challenge, especially for my theme--exploring literary devices.

Today's Y...

Yarn
An informal name for a long, rambling story--especially one dealing with adventure or tall-tales. The genre typically involves a strong narrative presence and colloquial or idiomatic English. The tone is realistic, but the content is typically fantastic or hyperbolic. (source)

Often, you hear this as "spin a yarn." When I think of a yarn, I think of a good campfire story. One told with lots of inflection late at night with the eerie glow of a campfire. The better the storyteller, the better the story.

By definition above, it's all about adventure and tall-tales. Makes sense, because those are the ones that I almost hear in my head. Since my kids and I recently watched the movie, Inkheart came to mind. It's about a man who brings stories to life when he reads them out loud. 

Wow, what an amazing gift. But isn't that what any good storyteller does? Storytellers can make or break an audio book, no matter how poor/great the material.

What was the last book you read that you wished a great storyteller was reading out loud to you? Or, what was the last audio book you listened to where the reader made it come to life?

Check out the other Ys here.

3 comments:

Julie Jordan Scott said...

I love, love, love, love, love did I say LOVE being read to? Perhaps this is why I take such care when I read aloud. That being said, I haven't given much thought to things these days except when I was recovering from my surgery last Fall, I had tons of poems collected for my friends to read me. Few were willing to do so, though, unless I asked.

YARN. I never knew how that related back to literary devices until today.

THANK YOU, Thank you, THANK YOU! (Can you believe A to Z is almost over?)

Julie Jordan Scott
Y is for YOU!
Literary Grannies from A to Z

Jo Michaels said...

OMG! PLEASE TELL ME YOU'VE READ THE INKHEART TRILOGY! It was some of the most inspiring writing I've ever had the great pleasure of wrapping my eyeballs around. There's SO much more to the story than what's in the movie. The movie, in this case, did the book ZERO justice. People didn't have words on them in the book. Retarded. :) Check it out. I ADORE Cornelia Funke :) Excellent find for the letter Y, by the way. WRITE ON!

Tia Bach said...

Julie - I also love to have stories read to me.

Jo - I haven't read the Inkheart trilogy. Guess I need to!