![]() ![]() "The idiom was originally a purple passage or purple patch, and the earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1598. (Paul West, "In Defense of Purple Prose." The New York Times, Dec. A writer who does purple all the time ought to have more tricks." A writer who can't do purple is missing a trick. So long as originality and lexical precision prevail, the sentient writer has a right to immerse himself or herself in phenomena and come up with as personal a version as can be. Purple is immoral, undemocratic and insincere at best artsy, at worst the exterminating angel of depravity. "It takes a certain amount of sass to speak up for prose that's rich, succulent and full of novelty. ![]() This minimalist vogue depends on the premise that only an almost invisible style can be sincere, honest, moving, sensitive and so forth, whereas prose that draws attention to itself by being revved up, ample, intense, incandescent or flamboyant turns its back on something almost holy-the human bond with ordinariness. Even to begin to do that you need to be more articulate than Joe, or you might as well tape-record him and leave it at that. "Certain producers of plain prose have conned the reading public into believing that only in prose plain, humdrum or flat can you articulate the mind of inarticulate ordinary Joe. (Jessica Page Morrell, Between the Lines. Purple prose also features an abundance of metaphors and figurative language, long sentences, and abstractions." "In purple prose, skin is always creamy, eyelashes always glistening, heroes always brooding, and sunrises always magical. "The culprits of purple prose are usually modifiers that make your writing wordy, overwrought, distracting, and even silly. ![]() (Charles Johnson, "Ethics and Literature." Ethics, Literature, and Theory: An Introductory Reader, 2nd ed., edited by Stephen K.
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