Week 10: Voice in Contemporary Literature

In Sleep Donation Karen Russell writes with a very clear voice. The first thing I noticed about her voice is that a lot of times she will end sentences with two adjectives. For example when talking about the moon she writes, "Its radiance makes every white of human manufacture seem dingy, impure." I think this way of writing just flows well and adds a little extra description to her stories.

The second thing I noticed about the authors voice is that she writes with a lot of almost asides like she is speaking to the audience. Some examples being, "Our contact is limited to this office (unless you count our public performances at Corps fund-raisers, the Charity Balls and Charity Golf-Offs)." and My mouthy, gorgeous, stupid-brave sister Dori, Miss “Drive It Like You Stole It” (even when the only “It” available to us was our great-aunt’s haunted house of a wood-panelled Chrysler—who ever heard of a car with termites?),". These little notes in parenthesis help the reader to dig deeper into the story the author is telling and make you feel included. They also give you a better taste of what the character and the authors personality is like.

The third way I think we hear the authors voice in this story is her amazing description of things. She uses a lot of really great similes that I don't think everyone would think of. It is because of these similes that she doesn't need to use a whole lot of other description because we get the point after just one well written sentence. A good example of this can be seen even on the first page. The author writes, "Rudy slaps his bald spot and leaves his hand there. A grapefruit hue spills underneath his fingers, as if the scalp is blushing." After just one sentence we get a clear picture of the man she is describing and his actions. 

As far as tone goes I think hers could be described in different ways. With her snappy asides to the audience you could almost say her tone is sarcastic. After reading the list of different tones from the link on the class page I picked a few that I think fit with this story. First of all I think the tone could be considered candid meaning truthful, straightforward: honest or unreserved. The reason I think this is that the author doesn't beat around the bush with this story. She jumps right in and begins to tell the story very straightforward. Although she has very descriptive sentences she doesn't write with a lot of other unnecessary flourish. Another way I think the tone could be described is almost chatty meaning informal; lively; conversational or familiar. I think this part of the tone comes out in the authors asides to us. The whole story to me just feels like she is talking to us. We are easily immersed in this world of sleep deprived people because the author is so great at giving us lots of information here and there through various methods.  

Overall I thought that this novella was very interesting. I enjoy Karen Russell's style of writing a lot because it feels very personal. I also thought the story in general was a totally new story and I haven't read anything with the same plot. The idea of a insomnia apocalypse is a very cool yet creepy idea.