fandom_grammar . Feature: What Is Purple Prose? (Reply)

Purple prose: When does a lot become just too much?

What is purple prose? Usually, it's when too much becomes just too much, when flowery adjectives and redundancy get in the way of the narrative. Edward Bulwer-Lytton's infamous first sentence probably qualifies:

"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."

The Eye of Argon has a similarly, er, winning beginning:

The weather beaten trail wound ahead into the dust racked climes of the baren land which dominates large portions of the Norgolian empire. Age worn hoof prints smothered by the sifting sands of time shone dully against the dust splattered crust of earth. The tireless sun cast its parching rays of incandescense from overhead, half way through its daily revolution. Small rodents scampered about, occupying themselves in the daily accomplishments of their dismal lives. Dust sprayed over three heaving mounts in blinding clouds, while they bore the burdonsome cargoes of their struggling overseers.

And here's the beginning of Irene Iddesleigh:

Sympathise with me, indeed! Ah, no! Cast your sympathy on the chill waves of troubled waters; fling it on the oases of futurity; dash it against the rock of gossip; or, better still, allow it to remain within the false and faithless bosom of buried scorn.

Truly purple prose is usually easy to spot; your eyes are tempted to roll by the middle of the paragraph. Purple prose never uses clarity when complexity can be introduced instead.

Usually these are the markers of purple prose:

Redundancy. If you see someone whose 'luminous, round orbs shine brightly,' you're looking at purple prose.

Unnecessary detail. Genjo Sanzo's eyes aren't 'purple' or even 'violet,' they're pale aubergine.

Complexity that comes at the cost of clarity. Overall, the more complicated you make your sentences, the harder they are to follow. Some of the paragraphs above are on the short side, but their confusing, wandering prose makes them feel long.

In professional fiction, purple prose is often a sign of older fiction; the twentieth century brought a movement toward using words more efficiently and economically, and as a result even bad prose is generally less 'purple' and more 'dry.' Still, even modern professional fiction has its moments of purple-ness, especially in romance novels and the winners of the Bad Sex awards. (For some reason, sex seems to bring out the purple in every writer, perhaps because 'standard' description sometimes feels too clinical.)

Avoiding Purple Prose in Your Own Work

The best advice comes from 1918, in Strunk and White's Elements of Style:

Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

Or: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

This also applies to the use of adjectives. Generally, adjectives, like the rest of your writing, should be simple and direct, but there may be places where you want to use more detail. To use an example from my Choosing the Right Words feature:

There were four young men at the table. The first was a blond in priest's robes who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else than sitting in our restaurant. The second had dark hair and green eyes; he was smiling, and seemed rather friendly. The third was clearly the youngest; he had an easy smile and light brown hair. I could see the glint of something gold in his hair-- some kind of crown, or headband?

And then there was the last man. His hair was long, brushing his shoulders, and a deep scarlet. His eyes were the same crimson shade, sharp and intelligent. When he smiled at me, his teeth were a brilliant white.

The language for the fourth man is more detailed and uses more variety in the adjectives used: The last man's made an impression, and we want the reader to know it.

Of course there may be times when you do want to break out the purple prose.

This Peanuts cartoon is one of many that parodied Snoopy's literary efforts with a single infamous phrase. While I wouldn't recommend having a character start off their works with "It was a dark and stormy night," if you want to mock someone's attempts at writing, shading toward purple is simple, effective, and often funny.

"This is the stupidest thing I've ever read," Sanzo said, slapping the newspaper down on the table.

Hakkai looked at the headline and frowned. "'The scarlet-haired champion of the youkai, our lord Kougaiji, recently struggled with those notorious ruffians, the Sanzo party. The group of traitorous thugs continue to travel west, leaving nothing but broken hearts and the shattered remants of torn dreams in their malevolent wake.'"

"I didn't even know there were youkai newspapers," Goku said, with interest.

"Not very good ones," Sanzo grumbled.

There are also certainly times when you want to break out more specific adjectives.

"It's purple," Applejack said flatly.

Rarity looked horrified. "Purple! Purple! Do you know I have twenty different shades of that color in my basic color collection? If I called them all 'purple,' I'd lose my mind. That fabric is aubergine."

But for your everyday writing, simplicity is the key. It sounds modern and is much easier for everyone to understand.

Resources

The Elements of Style is in the public domain, and you can read the whole thing for free.

You can read all of Irene Iddesleigh for free too, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

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