The Garden

This is probably a horrible piece of writing to choose for this assignment, because I can't remember who wrote it, exactly what it's about, and I can't seem to find any exact quotes. But I'm going to post it anyway, because it's what came to mind as soon as I read the assignment.

It's a religious musical that I heard on a CD on the mission. It was about a garden that had a caretaker, and the individual stories of certain plants in the garden. They all had some kind of problem that the caretaker helped them to overcome, and there was a devil-like character that was represented by a snake (oh, so original!)

That's about all I can remember and I'm not even sure of those details, but this is why I picked it: The 'devil' character's main scene was amazingly written. The most obvious feature was the alliteration of the letter 's'. It was so frequent and so rhythmic that it immediately made you you think of a snake. It almost made the sound, "visually dynamic". At the same time, the words weren't repetitive or poorly chosen. It was such a powerful effect, but it didn't look like the writer was trying too hard.

The more subtle feature was a constant, but repetitive subtle beat that portrayed the character underlying personality or being subtle, and one who would repeatedly tempt until their victim was overcome.

I think the lesson I learnt from that was the art of choosing the right words. It's not just about the meaning - it's about all possible connotations. Some words sound powerful, others are belittling - every word has an emotional connotation that can be mastered to produce the desired reaction in a powerful way.