What Is Wrong with Purple Prose?

Insert Name · Mar 1, 2007

As long as it is done skillfully, I don't see a problem with it. I actually like some forms of prose poetry that is often accused of being "purple" (Annie Proulx, Cormac McCarthy). I think too many writers associate it with a certain form of pulp literature and then denounce it all. Purple prose, masterfully done, tends to sound more unique than minimalist prose done equally as well (Cheever, Hemingway, Hempel, and to a certain extent Munro).

I assume, for some, the problem is that it isn't being direct and instead is waxing poetic. I think it boils down to aesthetic difference but it seems mundane to say many things directly (especially in terms of metaphysics and geography).

Two examples of skill from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian

"The truth about the world he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning.

The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's mind can compass, the mind itself being but a fact among others."

“See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a last few wolves. His folk are known for hewers of wood and drawers of water but in truth his father has been a schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he quotes from poets whose names are now lost. The boy crouches by the fire and watches him. Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove. The mother dead these fourteen years did incubate in her own bosom the creature who would carry her off. The father never speaks her name, the child does not know it. He has a sister in this world that he will not see again. He watches, pale and unwashed. He can neither read nor write and in him broods already a taste for mindless violence. All history present in that visage, the child the father of the man.”

RG570 · Mar 1, 2007

I don't know, to me these examples don't read that purple. I mean there's the occasional ten dollar word, but it's very readable, at least to my eyes/ear.

I doubt anyone is arguing against writing like this. I think "purple" normally refers to amateurish overuse of big words, unneccesary drama, and description where the writer isn't conscoius of the effect it has. I mean you can tell this writer knows what he's doing. Compare that with, say, Eragon, and, well...

Ah, I don't know. I'm sure there are a thousand different opinions on it. There are like nine million threads of this breed on here.

Insert Name · Mar 1, 2007

RG570 said:
I don't know, to me these examples don't read that purple. I mean there's the occasional ten dollar word, but it's very readable, at least to my eyes/ear.

I doubt anyone is arguing against writing like this. I think "purple" normally refers to amateurish overuse of big words, unneccesary drama, and description where the writer isn't conscoius of the effect it has. I mean you can tell this writer knows what he's doing. Compare that with, say, Eragon, and, well...

Ah, I don't know. I'm sure there are a thousand different opinions on it. There are like nine million threads of this breed on here.

I agree with what you are saying. It's just that with Proulx and McCarthy, I always here that they are purple as if that is problematic. B.R. Myers A Reader's Manifesto comes to mind as one of the common attacks on both writers. I don't get the feeling, from the excerpts, that McCarthy is trying to layer something that is simple (such as those people who spend dozens of pages describing a sunset). McCarthy, in my opinion, is condensing something that could be dealt with in a 400 page philosophical treatise (idealism and rejection of platonic forms) and doing it in a paragraph. I am actually highly impressed with it. It is perhaps one of my favorite paragraphs in all of literature.

Willowmound · Mar 2, 2007

It's not purple of it's good.

Angelinity · Mar 2, 2007

i'm one of those writers sometimes accused of writing literary 'bordering on purple prose'. it used to upset me, but no longer -- i just accept the reaction as a symptom of the times....

it's the 'fast food' syndrome... imo, today's readers as a whole have been conditioned to expect action, fireworks, drama, joy and exhillartion in five-minutes flat. when some or all of these components are not forthcoming, when the contemplatory/introspective makes up for half of those five minutes, readers get bored and pull away.

the publishing industry merely reacts to societal / market trends, shunning work that doesn't sell.

i have some pretty close friends who confess skipping over whole pages... even entire chapters 'because nothing's happening'...

and i know of many who have not picked up a fiction book since college... they prefer to... 'wait for the movie'...

this is a sad state of affairs for a writer -- more so for a lit fic writer... whose non-dialogue passages might 'border on purple prose'.

Willowmound · Mar 2, 2007

If nothing is happening for pages, you need to tighten your writing. Purple prose is hardly your problem -- pacing is.

'You' as in the general you.

seun · Mar 2, 2007

Angelinity said:
i have some pretty close friends who confess skipping over whole pages... even entire chapters 'because nothing's happening'...

and i know of many who have not picked up a fiction book since college... they prefer to... 'wait for the movie'...

And you still talk to these people?

Angelinity · Mar 2, 2007

...'And you still talk to these people?' (quote: seun)

they do have some saving graces.... as do most people - gotta keep an open mind, ya know

Linda Adams · Mar 2, 2007

Whenever I've seen purple prose, it aways strikes me as if the writer is trying to impress the reader by being writerly. If one metaphor is good, then ten must be better! The sentences are longer than necessary because, well, more words are better than less. And why use a small word if a big word can do, even if no one's heard of it? It doesn't bring the reader into the experience of reading, but actually kicks them out because it interrupts the flow of the story.

But I also see purple prose more with writers learning how to write (and usually just having discovered metaphors and description). It's like they're trying too hard to sound like a writer instead of simply writing a story and finding their style.

swvaughn · Mar 2, 2007

My first novel was grapety-purple.

I do enjoy well-written descriptive prose, just not pages and pages and pages describing a tree in New Orleans (ahem).

Angelinity · Mar 2, 2007

...just as the definition of 'literary' is interpreted differently depending on one's reading experience -- among other things -- so a label such as 'purple prose' can be misunderstood and often misused ...

well-written exploratory/introspective narration is often dubbed as purple prose, since to some readers it may not appear to further the plot -- to take him to those 'juicy' parts, where exciting, 'happening' stuff finally makes his reading investment worthwhile...

Hillgate · Mar 2, 2007

I always thought 'purple prose' was a phrase used to denote a passage of unparalleled brilliance :poke:

Elodie-Caroline · Mar 2, 2007

I don't mind admitting this, but I don't actually think I know what 'purple prose' means?
However, the first insert of words made me think that the person would rather use ten words where one would have done, it bored me and seemed like a mish mash of showing off with words.
The second insert was understandable and worth reading, you weren't lost in a trail of useless words that made you forget what you were supposed to be reading.

Elodie

Judg · Mar 2, 2007

My understanding of purple prose is a passage dripping with adjectives, adverbs, metaphors, similes, over-wrought emotions gleefully wallowed in...

For me it creates the same impression as walking into a house where every horizontal space is littered with knick-knacks, every vertical space decorated, every corner stuffed with yet another piece of furniture designed to display yet more knick-knacks, every window decorated with flounces and valances and hung with innumerable plants. I just want to run away. And while every individual piece might be charming, interesting or even beautiful, the surfeit is unbearable.

BardSkye · Mar 2, 2007

Judg said:
My understanding of purple prose is a passage dripping with adjectives, adverbs, metaphors, similes, over-wrought emotions gleefully wallowed in...

For me it creates the same impression as walking into a house where every horizontal space is littered with knick-knacks, every vertical space decorated, every corner stuffed with yet another piece of furniture designed to display yet more knick-knacks, every window decorated with flounces and valances and hung with innumerable plants. I just want to run away. And while every individual piece might be charming, interesting or even beautiful, the surfeit is unbearable.

What are you doing in my house? :scared:

The first few pieces I posted in SYW were deep purple. Unfortunately, I write exactly the same way I speak...

Zoombie · Mar 2, 2007

BardSkye said:
The first few pieces I posted in SYW were deep purple. Unfortunately, I write exactly the same way I speak...

Whoa. Then you must be very fun to listen too.

Personally, I hate purple prose. Or at least I think I do, because I'm not sure if I've read any of it. But it SOUNDS like something I'd hate.

pconsidine · Mar 2, 2007

Perhaps it's a side effect of my professional life, but I'm all about clarity and efficiency in what I read (what I write is another matter entirely). I will also confess to being one of those people who will skip paragraphs, pages, or even whole chapters if the story doesn't move in that time. It's usually a sign of a disconnection between what the author thinks is important and what the reader does.

PeeDee · Mar 2, 2007

He gasped like a man possessed as he thrust desperately through the turgid surface of the choppy waves, black like his heart, so black and painful! And he struggled to remember sweet Mary Sue, so totally beautiful and awesomely graceful and his heart pined like a falling tree for her love, for her gentle hands like bone china plates caressing his loving skin with caresses that would move him unto life.

You know those scenes in movies where a bunch of kids are sitting around a campfire, and one's telling a story...really....SLOWLY....for....EFFECT in an effort to scare the other kids? And the story he's telling is really not that good?

If you read your stuff out loud and it sounds like that, it might be purple prose.

If you are embarrassed to read your stuff out loud, it might be purple prose.

If you use every big word you have for no reason and have dripping emotion dripping off every page and it's not done very well and just sounds like someone masturbating on paper....it might be purple prose.

(this is like a Jeff Foxworthy "you might be a redneck if" skit.)

As was pointed out, if it's good writing, it's not purple prose. You're confusing purple prose with the type of lyrical, flowing writing that McCaffery (occasionally) and Bradbury (sometimes) uses.

Toothpaste · Mar 2, 2007

To say that the reason people don't like purple prose is it is their lack of attention skills, or a fast food nation, is a wee bit insulting. Sure there are people out there who don't read books for that reason, but out of the people who enjoy a good book, there are many other reasons for not liking florid prose. The big one being that it appears like the author is writing for his own sake and couldn't care less about the audience. At the same time there are very literary books that do incredibly well, so obviously people don't mind reading it if it is well done.

Do anything well, people will like it. I hate to say it, but if you've written a whole chapter and nothing happens (not even some internal struggle), why would I want to read it?

Ghengis Kant · Mar 2, 2007

I like purple prose.

gp101 · Mar 2, 2007

Insert Name said:
As long as it is done skillfully, I don't see a problem with it.

If "it" is done skillfully, IMHO, it ceases being purple. If "it" is not done well, the writing seems masturbatory, pretentious, misguided... in a word, boring. Problem is, it seems to be a fine line in a lot of cases as to whether or not it was pulled off, and the whole thing becomes subjective.

As for your three examples, the first two have absolutely no rhythm to them for my genre-infected ears. Long sentence after long sentence of near-essay quality boredom. The final paragraph alters its pace a little better but I had absolutely no interest in the subject matter, it did nothing for me, I don't remember what I just read. Doesn't make the author a bad writer; it just doesn't move me the way it might move others. Call me shallow. It's okay.

ETA Although well-written literary can be very poetic, satisfying, engaging, I sometimes wonder if the purplest of prose--those who fall short of pulling "it" off--is written solely to impress and maybe even intimidate other writers, as well as critics, writing professors, and artists. I think these particular felons of the purple treat their writing like a classroom project where they have to outdo their fellow classmates, while totally ignoring the reading public. I really don't think the biggest violators of this truly think through who their target audience is beyond the others living with them in that shack with no plumbing by the lake on the snowy hill, each with his typewriter running low on ribbon.

scarletpeaches · Mar 2, 2007

The word 'masturbatory' tickles me, because when I read purple prose, I call it "A load of old wank!"

If the writing draws attention to itself, it's purple. If it reads like the author showing off his literary 'skill', it's purple.

However, if it draws you into the story, or reads like the author uses these words naturally, because they're a part of his vocabulary and not just picked up from a random 'big words' dictionary, it's not.

Judg · Mar 2, 2007

Toothpaste, I find equating literary and purple rather strange. As a lover of both genre and literary, I don't have an ax to grind here, but so far, the most florid stuff I've seen has been romance, with some fantasy a close second. In all fairness, none of these were major, well-known authors.

I spent four years studying literature in three languages, and I never encountered purple there.

An apt and unusual word, a striking metaphor, in the hand of a master, is breathtaking. A hack thinks more is more and tries to glue them on every available surface.

I was thinking as I read this thread yesterday, that in my conscious avoidance of purple, I may have gone too far the other way. Metaphors are an extremely powerful tool when used properly.

Just Me · Mar 2, 2007

Angelinity said:
i have some pretty close friends who confess skipping over whole pages... even entire chapters 'because nothing's happening'...

::quietly raises hand and pleads guilty::

I like nice description as much as anyone, and I can appreciate the need for characters to stop and think now and then. But when it goes on for pages and pages, my mind tends to wander. A lot. If I get too frustrated (unless I REALLY like the author), I'll probably just put the book down indefinitely or skip ahead until I find something that looks important. I guess that's why I've come to like YA fantasy/sci-fi better than most books for adults lately: for the most part, they just cut to the chase.

As for "purple prose," I've always thought of it as being when an author goes out of their way to describe Every Little Thing in exhaustive pseudo-poetic detail. It's never just a sunrise; it's always the rosy fingers of dawn reaching down from the infinite heavens to caress the delicate emerald blades borne from the womb of mother earth.

Needless to say, I wouldn't get far in a book like that.

~JM.

TsukiRyoko · Mar 2, 2007

I love purple prose, but I feel it doesn't have a place in some stuff. Example- you're combing through the news paper, come across a headline about a murderer who has completely mangled and skinned a handful of women and children, and then you see, "We found one of the bodies hanging in an ancient oak tree that was accented with vines and radiating grandeur in the evening sunset." :Wha:

Purple prose for the sake of purple prose is a beautiful thing. It's a wonderful exercise if you have writer's block, and it can be an amazing read if you come across a good piece.

What Is Wrong with Purple Prose?

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