this is a great read...YET AGAIN. teally clear to see the effect of one style when you transpose a very different piece into that style. very effective.
purple prose you say... i am guilty of rather a lot of that recently and quite deliberately so... for hopefully melodramatic and comedic effect...
While "best" and "worst" are subjective categories (trust me, I've read worse than the worst here), I love the food for thought and examples. Examples are what makes the discussion understandable to the most barbarian brain. I have recommended your Literary Salon on the Bluegrass Writing Studio Alumnus facebook page, and told people to try substack. I hope you don't mind. I know facebook is passe, but the stuff here on substack is the best of times and the worst of times reading-wise (heh-heh), and I know people who would enjoy the analyses.
Precisely. I've gone much of my writing career with that definition, and that leads one to think the disdain for purple prose is merely a matter of taste. That leads to unhelpful mindsets that, at least in my case, elevates one's amateur writing to the status of great writers. While participating in one local writing group, I even remember thinking "these people would tell Faulkner to bastardize his writing." In all likelihood, the difference was, as you suggest, an issue of substance. Now I have an additional editing tool. I'll be mercilessly extricating phrases that convey the same meaning in future revisions.
this is a great read...YET AGAIN. teally clear to see the effect of one style when you transpose a very different piece into that style. very effective.
purple prose you say... i am guilty of rather a lot of that recently and quite deliberately so... for hopefully melodramatic and comedic effect...
Lol 😆 that's its proper place!
Excellent.
Post Lolita tomorrow?
While "best" and "worst" are subjective categories (trust me, I've read worse than the worst here), I love the food for thought and examples. Examples are what makes the discussion understandable to the most barbarian brain. I have recommended your Literary Salon on the Bluegrass Writing Studio Alumnus facebook page, and told people to try substack. I hope you don't mind. I know facebook is passe, but the stuff here on substack is the best of times and the worst of times reading-wise (heh-heh), and I know people who would enjoy the analyses.
That’s wonderful! Thank you!
I’ve just finished the essay and scheduled it for the morning. You’ll be able to find it here: https://sibyliad.substack.com/p/a-philosophy-of-literary-style
Defining purple prose as "empty style" is a helpful measure to weigh one's writing against.
It's certainly better than wondering if anything "pretty" is purple. Thank you.
Precisely. I've gone much of my writing career with that definition, and that leads one to think the disdain for purple prose is merely a matter of taste. That leads to unhelpful mindsets that, at least in my case, elevates one's amateur writing to the status of great writers. While participating in one local writing group, I even remember thinking "these people would tell Faulkner to bastardize his writing." In all likelihood, the difference was, as you suggest, an issue of substance. Now I have an additional editing tool. I'll be mercilessly extricating phrases that convey the same meaning in future revisions.