Insight into an author’s technique, if one wants to write, can be helpful or at least inspiring. For example, the studied repetition, sprinkled throughout the text, of certain words or phrases is something that I noticed was used to powerful effect in Updike's _Roger's Version_. Obviously he isn't the pioneer of the device, but his employment of it was masterful. Whether I adapt this device or not, the more conscious I am of the when and why of each word I use, the better are my own chances of producing evocative prose.

I am not sure what that particular technique Updike used might be called. Probably it is too uncontrolled to have been named by the classical rhetoricists. There are however several related techniques, strictly defined. Let us examine the rhetorical device of anaphora, used by another man with a talent for words, Ice Cube:

"Motherfuckin crew, motherfuckin mob
Do a motherfuckin job in a motherfuckin squad"

I wouldn’t imitate directly either John Updike or Ice Cube, but hope to learn from both. Unfortunately, in both examples given, the exact outcome is difficult to extract. The former technique does not have the classical rule structure of the second, thus its use is trickier and comes from subtle cues in the writer’s mind. The second technique is not particularly applicable to novel writing, although if one is so inclined one can use it with confidence, given that the instructions for use are standardized. That won’t achieve the effct that I am looking for and cannot as yet articulate. Monsieur Cube’s words have power that lies in something beyond the framework of technique. Aside from the energy and offensiveness is this thing in O’Shea Jackson’s words that I want to discover and use in my own writing. But not lightly, not for the purposes of passing myself off as someone I am not, and not until I’m certain I understand it; I have no wish to appear as any more of a poseur than I already do.