The Consummate Stylist

I thought it timely to point out to our readers one example of the sparkling literary talent right under our noses. I do so because on the blog The Smoking Christian, the brilliant subject matter often blinds one to the stylistic device. To wit: the dramatic sentence fragment.

“Nothing so firmly demonstrates your command over the sentence as a judicious fragment.” So says Sheridan Baker in his book, The Complete Stylist. The sentence fragment is conversational in tone. It lets the reader feel in on the conversation. The Smoking Christian is nothing if not conversational and this is why we love it so! This doesn’t happen by accident. Peter works very hard at getting it right and it shows. But he is so accomplished that, as I said, the reader doesn’t even notice. The following are examples of dramatic sentence fragments plucked from previous posts on The Smoking Christian. Note: In context, they are positioned exactly at the place where they will have the most impact.
Enjoy!

“But I don’t mind.”
From “MY THOUGHTS ON ‘THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM’”
Friday, March 31, 2006

“People you’ve heard of.”
From “THE SWEET SMELL OF DISTRESS”
Friday, March 31, 2006

“I go alone.”
From “EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE”
Thursday, March 30, 2006

“BUT, WE MOVED.”
From “DADA DADDY DO DAH”
Saturday, March 25, 2006

“Well, I guess I did.”
From ‘“TROUT MASK REPLICA”’
Thursday, March 23, 2006

And from some older posts:

“Fact!”
From “INTRODUCING ‘THE SMOKING CHRISTIAN’S DELICIOUS WORLD OF LIVING MARINADES’”
Wednesday, October 26, 2005

“Yes, very, very good.”
From “MY FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE AS THE SMOKING CHRISTIAN”
Monday, October 24, 2005

“He pointed.”
From “MY IMAGINARY TWIN (WHO ACTUALLY WRITES ALL MY POEMS)”
Thursday, October 20, 2005