First, a reminder of what hooptedoodle is. From Steinbeck:
”I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me
what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like
from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy’s thinking from what he
says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want
a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty
words maybe or sing a little song with language. That’s nice. But I wish it was
set aside so I don’t have to read it. I don’t want hooptedoodle to get mixed up
with the story.”
This gem comes from the
prologue to “Sweet Thursday.”
I’m re-reading Arthur C.
Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama” (don’t get me started on the Gentry Lee
collaborations in later Rama books) and the hooptedoodle really stands out in
this one. Not that he’s got much there, but it is there, and when I mention it,
those who have read Rama through the eyes of a writer will know immeidately
what I’m talking about: The simps. Superchimps. Mentioned in one chapter, then
only fleetingly in the book. Not essential to the story or plot at all. Even
the simps’ caretaker disappears from the book. So the simps are hooptedoodle.
And the book would be just fine without them. Yes, they are a bit of good
science fiction (explaining the monkeys are there for cooking, housecleaning,
etc., able to do the work of 2.75 men per simp), but it’s science fiction
hooptedoodle nonetheless.
I have no idea how many times
I’ve read this book (I enjoy it immensely for its speculative story). This is
the first time I’ve noticed the hoopetedoodle, though. I don’t know why it
stood out this time. Perhaps because I’m editing a book of my own and noticing
it’s riddled with hooptedoodle.
Recognize hooptedoodle in
others’ writing so you can find it and kill it, when necessary, in your own.
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