商品簡介
Author Jacek Dabala is a philosopher and media theorist (media workshop and axiology, Institute of Journalism and Social Communication, the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland). His book is a practical analysis of how mystery stories work; the author is writing a cookbook for how to create prose that makes readers want to keep reading. In America, such a book would be by a professional in creative writing or rhetoric and composition: a how-to book by a known mystery writer, or a book about using the popular mystery and suspense genre to teach students the principles of good writing. However, this is a Polish book on the same subject by a philosopher of textual communication. Though this aspect of his experience is not used to sell the book, Dabala is also an experienced screenwriter and TV journalist. The book's prose is extremely accessible for a work of academic philosophy. Zofia Weaver provided the excellent translation, and the book is easy for general readers to understand. Teachers of both composition and creative writing may be annoyed by the author's dismissal of their fields as banal and shallow; they in turn may find the author's discoveries in axiological philosophy exactly replicate basic information in creative writing and composition. However, students, teachers, and professionals in technical fields who must write but are unfamiliar with creative writing skills and dislike creative-arts approaches may find the book's analysis of how to create suspenseful prose is just what they need. Distributed in North America by ISBS. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
