Differences In Style

Recently, as I was reading The Brothers Karamazov, I stumbled upon the thought that made me think about modern literature quite unlike I have ever thought about it before. How brief would a novel like Karamazov be if it was written in, say, Hemingway's style?

For all of you that do not know, Ernest Hemingway's writing style is a style that, at first, appears blunt and straightforward, however upon re-reading his work and finding the motifs behind it, you realize there is a nearly bottomless well of deep thought put into the work. Nevertheless, his signature sentence structure is curt and to the point. I am sitting. I am writing a blog. It is very late in the night. Something like that.

Think for a second about Dostoyevsky's style now. How long and drawn out would a short novel like The Old Man And The Sea (Hemingway's best work) be if it was written in that style? First off, it would be 800 pages instead of the ~120. Also, we would become intricately familiar with every detail of the old man, of the boy, even the boat and the cracks in the boat. That is the difference in style- Dostoyevsky uses his imagination to determine every detail of a work in a very meticulous way that characterizes figures in the book through a three-dimensional lens, and Hemingway tells you just enough about a character, through the eyes of another, and leaves the experiences in the book infer about them what it is you want to infer.

I have thought about the vast parity between styles of literature, and although I prefer Hemingway's style, Dostoyevsky's is definitely much more difficult to develop and use. It is also rare, which is probably what draws people to his works. You should all (those that are misguided enough to have read the blog I wrote through half-open eyes at 2 a.m.) try writing a short piece, and have it interpreted by yourself and others, to determine your writing style. Some of you may be surprised to know who exactly you write most alike.