Although I enjoy beatiful prose, definitely purple. Purple prose is the result of an amateur writer trying to imitate Nabokov abusing adverbs and fricking murdering the reading pace. At least with plain prose I can focus on the plot if it is interesting.
Too purple. I actually just read a book that illustrated this perfectly. "Dream Evil" by Cameron Kane. The prose was extremely plain. The language was extremely straightforward and sparse, with almost no description of anything, particularly in the first half of the book while he was rushing to get to juicy bits.
It wasn't good writing, it was far too plain. But you know what? It was completely readable. Breezed right through it. I mean, it was dull and didn't really excite my imagination, but at least it wasn't painful to read.
Purple prose is tedious to read. It's a struggle. It suffers all the flaws of underwriting, but without the advantage of at least being easy to get through.
Too plain. Plain prose only shows the author was illiterate and lazy. They wanted to use literature not for its riches, but to deliver a narrative or complete an ego project just as intellectually stilted as their prose.
I get no pleasure from reading mediocrity imprinted. At least with prose that's too purple I can laugh at the obvious and erroneous use of a thesaurus and maybe learn or remember one or two particularly obscure words, if the failure of the author, in utmost effort, dug deep enough. The ceaseless comedy of word after word never gets old.
I find the people who use the term "purple" as an insult are generally, themselves, painfully midbrow. And seldom read.
Personally I'm a fan of auxiliary prose. Prose that doesn't need to be there but it is to of course help somewhat. Such as that I may add a sentence here and actually it was all for nothing, yet notice the language use, it's not purpley over the top.
Too purple is garbage. Like this: >Look up to the starry sky during a silent night and try to immerse yourself in those powerful theories of occidental thinking, according to which a glowing primordial mist hurls the worlds out into space like projectiles and the cycle of systems perpetuates itself for infinite time - the wind chimes of the forces inherent in them, until all this is smashed together again into a whirling chaos that holds new worlds in its fiery womb. And then look with a vigilant eye into the world that a drop of water encloses. You will find in it the same laws of tension and balance. You will discover in it beings, light-green or crystal-clear, that move in tumbling and rolling paths, that seek to control their space, and that stretch out their tiny organs to attack or to defend themselves when the other confronts them. Look into the spring green forest that seems to embody life itself, and consider that every single tree and every tiny stalk has grown up in a fierce struggle for light and food. Cast your net into the deepest, darkest abysses of the sea and you will draw out creatures with huge mouths, with searchlights that seek out the prey, and with tentacles that are meant to grab them. Place any object in front of you and make it quite clear to yourself that no other object can stand where this object stands, that it must already affect other existences by the pure fact of its existence, even if it is only that of the air, which it displaces only by overcoming a resistance, which you may not perceive, but which exists nevertheless.
It's not about parsing or understanding the paragraph. Purple prose is, usually, very easy to understand. It's about the abuse of adverbs and adejectives, unnecessary metaphors, etc; that don't contribute in anything to the understanding of the message that the author wants to send you but instead kill the rhythm of the reading and ends up giving a pretentious image.
hit that sweet spot homie
Too plain.
“Purple” is just people that can’t write beautifully seething at people that can.
Awful take.
Seething proselet
purple prose is beautiful in the same way a jackson pollock painting is
Stupid frogposter
Too purple, by a country mile. Too plain, at worst, is boring. Trying to read something that's too purple, however, is fricking insufferable.
This. Too purple also hurts your ability to be understood.
dumb frog
Although I enjoy beatiful prose, definitely purple. Purple prose is the result of an amateur writer trying to imitate Nabokov abusing adverbs and fricking murdering the reading pace. At least with plain prose I can focus on the plot if it is interesting.
Too purple. I actually just read a book that illustrated this perfectly. "Dream Evil" by Cameron Kane. The prose was extremely plain. The language was extremely straightforward and sparse, with almost no description of anything, particularly in the first half of the book while he was rushing to get to juicy bits.
It wasn't good writing, it was far too plain. But you know what? It was completely readable. Breezed right through it. I mean, it was dull and didn't really excite my imagination, but at least it wasn't painful to read.
Purple prose is tedious to read. It's a struggle. It suffers all the flaws of underwriting, but without the advantage of at least being easy to get through.
too purple: I hate this author
too plain: I hate this story
Too plain. Plain prose only shows the author was illiterate and lazy. They wanted to use literature not for its riches, but to deliver a narrative or complete an ego project just as intellectually stilted as their prose.
I get no pleasure from reading mediocrity imprinted. At least with prose that's too purple I can laugh at the obvious and erroneous use of a thesaurus and maybe learn or remember one or two particularly obscure words, if the failure of the author, in utmost effort, dug deep enough. The ceaseless comedy of word after word never gets old.
I find the people who use the term "purple" as an insult are generally, themselves, painfully midbrow. And seldom read.
Personally I'm a fan of auxiliary prose. Prose that doesn't need to be there but it is to of course help somewhat. Such as that I may add a sentence here and actually it was all for nothing, yet notice the language use, it's not purpley over the top.
Too purple is cringe, too plain is mediocre.
Is it worse to be cringed at or just dismissed?
Too purple is garbage. Like this:
>Look up to the starry sky during a silent night and try to immerse yourself in those powerful theories of occidental thinking, according to which a glowing primordial mist hurls the worlds out into space like projectiles and the cycle of systems perpetuates itself for infinite time - the wind chimes of the forces inherent in them, until all this is smashed together again into a whirling chaos that holds new worlds in its fiery womb. And then look with a vigilant eye into the world that a drop of water encloses. You will find in it the same laws of tension and balance. You will discover in it beings, light-green or crystal-clear, that move in tumbling and rolling paths, that seek to control their space, and that stretch out their tiny organs to attack or to defend themselves when the other confronts them. Look into the spring green forest that seems to embody life itself, and consider that every single tree and every tiny stalk has grown up in a fierce struggle for light and food. Cast your net into the deepest, darkest abysses of the sea and you will draw out creatures with huge mouths, with searchlights that seek out the prey, and with tentacles that are meant to grab them. Place any object in front of you and make it quite clear to yourself that no other object can stand where this object stands, that it must already affect other existences by the pure fact of its existence, even if it is only that of the air, which it displaces only by overcoming a resistance, which you may not perceive, but which exists nevertheless.
Dude, either I'm a literary God, or that shit is not difficult to parse.
do you want a cookie, homosexual?
It's not about parsing or understanding the paragraph. Purple prose is, usually, very easy to understand. It's about the abuse of adverbs and adejectives, unnecessary metaphors, etc; that don't contribute in anything to the understanding of the message that the author wants to send you but instead kill the rhythm of the reading and ends up giving a pretentious image.
Is it worse to post a pepe or a wojak?
Both are worse than the other.