Hey /lit/. I have this thing bugging me out for a while, tought

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Anonymous
2016-12-12 03:50:58 Post No.
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Anonymous 2016-12-12 03:50:58 Post No. [Report]

Hey /lit/.
I have this thing bugging me out for a while, tought of sharing.
There is this opening sentence that is often mocked by everybody as being bad:

>"It was a dark and stormy night"

Yeah, I know, it is a purple prose, and there is melodramatic but would you guys consider as a BAD intro?

I don't think it is. Its more like it has become a easy target for teachers at universities to show off a little bit by bashing on this.
I mean, what is the difference between that and the intro from Neuromancer "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" or anything from Tom Clancy "The mighty USS Nimitz was blazed out of control in the middle of the North Atlantic"?

So, what make this sentence so "bad" while other books with similar approach are considered successful and groundbreaking?

Also, purple prose thread.

Anonymous 2016-12-12 08:12:22 Post No.8833866
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Anonymous 2016-12-12 08:12:22 Post No.8833866 [Report]

>>8832810
Clancy is never considered a good writer of prose, Neuromancer works because it isn't a cliche and provides more insight into the narrator's voice.
I remember what it was like to be an angsty undergrad as well.

Anonymous 2016-12-12 08:16:36 Post No.8833882
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Anonymous 2016-12-12 08:16:36 Post No.8833882 [Report]

>>8832810

That's not the full sentence though

>It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Anonymous 2016-12-12 08:18:41 Post No.8833892
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Anonymous 2016-12-12 08:18:41 Post No.8833892 [Report]

>>8832810
As I recall, the whole thing was overwrought, not just that opening sentence fragment, and over time the opening sentence became cultural shorthand for poor writing.

>>8833882
Or that guy could beat me to it. Cheers, anon.

Anonymous 2016-12-12 08:20:53 Post No.8833907
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Anonymous 2016-12-12 08:20:53 Post No.8833907 [Report]

Purple prose is a really stupid term imo. Sure you could shorten the whole opening sentence to: " it was a dark and stormy night" but writing isn't maths, it's about evoking a certain atmosphere, feeling. So no I don't find that particular opening an example of bad prose. Purple prose to me is more like "image exhaustion", they always say show don't tell yada yada, but if you burry your readers under non-stop images they'll burn out and get out of the narrative, that to me is purple prose, certainly if the images are pretentiously or cliché worded

Anonymous 2016-12-12 10:17:57 Post No.8834399
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Anonymous 2016-12-12 10:17:57 Post No.8834399 [Report]

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>>8833866
>>8833882
>>8833892
>>8833907
In short: purple prose is bad but purple patches are OK?

I'm aware that Imgur.com will stop allowing adult images since 15th of May. I'm taking actions to backup as much data as possible. Read more on this topic here - https://archived.moe/talk/thread/1694/

I'm aware that Imgur.com will stop allowing adult images since 15th of May. I'm taking actions to backup as much data as possible.
Read more on this topic here - https://archived.moe/talk/thread/1694/