Thread: The Diminishment of Scale

This isn't exactly a non-fiction review. You see, the book in question, The Diminishment of Scale is a mere idea I had. So instead of writing the book, I wrote the elegiac review (thereby skipping a whole load of hard work); now presented for your pleasure.


An adventure of epic reduction, of growing simplicity and final singularity, The Diminishment of Scale is a pilgrimage starting in the mythic rural heartland of childhood, a record of the path of ignorance towards the end of innocence.

It is a journey from fantasy to fact, finishing at the elegance of self; final, complete, unchanging.

From dragons, knights and castles, the story descends to mundane reality; a half-empty room, a sad bundle of hopes and dreams, the death of narrative, a writer.

Like life itself, The Diminishment of Scale belongs in two worlds. The first is driven by nostalgia for narrative, fictional, inspirational, insipid. The second is forward-looking, wracked by uncertainty, contradiction, and the knowledge of the one sure thing awaiting us: the inescapable loneliness at the end of the road.

Hmm. Tough to write a review of something that doesn't yet exist, obviously. But you've posted the review for comment, I'll sum it up borrowing a well-known phrase. "It's much ado about nothing." What exactly would you want us to do with this piece? You have the ability to craft sentences, so put them into a body of work we can really critique. I'm not sure about the others who come in to critique, but I'd rather not invest my time in stuff like this.

I hope we'll be seeing some real submissions out of you. We're here to offer support, honest critique, guidance, recommendations, but please respect the time commitment it takes to do that and give us work that we can really sink our red pencils and our minds into. Look forward to reading your work.

This piece is meant to be a poetic experiment; perhaps I simply put it in the wrong part of the forum. I am sorry to hear that you gained nothing from it - if you seek more conventional prose or poetry, I have already submitted samples for your pleasure. Simply review a few of my past posts if you want pieces 'to sink your teeth into'.

I understand why this piece may be a challenge to critique; it is oblique, and written in high prose. The combination is, no doubt, bamboozling. That does not mean, however, that the critic would gain nothing from a closer examination.

Thank you for your feedback.

I suppose I must concede it too far beyond me, too lofty a prose, perhaps, and my literary tastes too earthy and simple, or perhaps I've been too long away from the fairytale and poetry in general to make the connection you intend. My apologies if I sounded harsh. The contrasts between yesterday and today, between complexity and simplicity, the coming of age idea mentally, the aloneness every writer must face and the occasional mundaneness of his/her chosen art, all that was not so hard to follow. I was simply perplexed as to what it was we were supposed to do with the piece once it was bestowed on us? Did you wish a critique or desire comment? Perhaps I overstepped. If so, I apologize.

Forgive my unpoetic mind. It is my cross to bear. I merely took at face value that it was a review of some sort, though "not exactly a nonfiction review". I read it once, twice, three times, stopping as punctuation demanded, but still, it escaped me. I wish you luck with your book, and hope you'll tackle the harder work, as you put it. As one who still occasionally reviews books, I'd be interested to see the book that would go along with this, if it were to be. Best wishes.