Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy
Published 2016 · 160 pages · 53,716 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction to read?
Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction scores 56 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 68 out of 100
- The text employs a specialized vocabulary inherent to literary criticism and writing craft, including terms like "hypotaxis," "polysyndeton," "objective correlative," and "gorenography." While the author often contextualizes or explains these terms, their consistent presence elevates the linguistic demands beyond typical contemporary fiction, placing it above "The Great Gatsby" but well below works dense with archaic or invented language.
- Sentence structure: 65 out of 100
- Sentences exhibit considerable variation, frequently extending into complex structures with multiple clauses, descriptive phrases, and rhetorical devices like polysyndeton, as demonstrated in the analysis of authors like Annie Dillard and Michael Chabon. Though generally navigable, the prose often requires careful attention to follow intricate thought processes and detailed examples, making it more demanding than "The Great Gatsby" but less convoluted than a Jamesian novel.
- Abstraction: 60 out of 100
- The core subject matter—literary theory and writing techniques—is inherently abstract, dealing with concepts such as narrative arcs, thematic cohesion, and character transformation. However, the author effectively grounds these theoretical discussions with a wealth of concrete examples, personal anecdotes, and pop culture references, making the abstract ideas accessible and practical rather than purely philosophical, akin to "Atomic Habits" but with more artistic depth.
- Information density: 72 out of 100
- The text is exceptionally rich in content, presenting a high volume of distinct writing concepts, techniques, and illustrative examples from literature and film within each chapter. The author moves swiftly between ideas and their detailed applications, demanding sustained attention from the reader to absorb the numerous insights and connections, making it significantly denser than a plot-driven novel.
- Narrative indirection: 25 out of 100
- The author directly explains his writing philosophy and techniques, using explicit instructions and personal anecdotes to illustrate points. Readers are told meaning rather than needing to infer it, aligning with the directness of instructional prose. This approach is far from the pure implication found in works like 'Finnegans Wake'.
- Symbolic density: 20 out of 100
- As a non-fiction craft book, the text primarily functions on a literal level, explaining concepts and provide examples. While it discusses symbolism in other works, its own prose does not rely on dense motifs or allegories for its core meaning, making it closer to 'Diary of a Young Girl' in its literal presentation.
- Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
- Benjamin Percy maintains a direct and earnest authorial voice throughout, clearly stating his intentions and opinions. Any instances of humor or self-deprecation are explicitly signposted and serve to build rapport, not to create a significant gap between stated and implied meaning, unlike the complex satire of 'The Sellout'.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- The book is structured to provide clear explanations and conclusions for each craft concept presented. While it discusses how fiction can withhold resolution, the text itself offers explicit answers and insights, providing closure on its instructional points rather than leaving ambiguity, much like a genre-expected ending in 'Beach Read'.
- Structural complexity: 30 out of 100
- The book is organized into clearly titled essays, each presenting a distinct aspect of writing craft. While the author weaves in numerous examples and personal stories, the overall structure is linear and logical, without experimental forms or ambiguous narrative framing, making it much simpler than works like 'Ulysses' or 'Flights'.
How Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction is regarded
Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction holds a literary regard score of 32 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.