thoughts on purple prose v beautiful writing

[Anonymous No.19584230]

It's so obvious when something is over-written and has a lot of nice-sounding shit that's still shit on it. It's less obvious when something is "pretty" but also still leaves you empty.

Realized that this might be it: there are people who have mastered craft (look at a lot of contemporary lit) and can write prose with good images and some solid rhythm, which all gives a pleasant effect, but that's all it is.

beautiful, lyrical, good sentences are simply expressions of a profound thought or a new mode of perception of a thing, anything.

like yeah no shit, but there is no amount of dressing up you can do to make something devoid of meaning strike someone. the form of an idea, impression or observation cannot raise or hide the true level of that idea, impression etc.

so I wanted to say this because I see people struggling to make prose beautiful when we should be struggling to think beautiful thoughts

[Anonymous No.19585455]

>>19584230
>but there is no amount of dressing up you can do to make something devoid of meaning strike someone
how would you define meaning?

[Anonymous No.19585461]

>I see people struggling to make prose beautiful when we should be struggling to think beautiful thoughts
Please elaborate

[Anonymous No.19585477]

>>19584230
is your point to stop refining sentences once they manage to convey the original thought that triggered them?

[Anonymous No.19585524]

>>19585461
Not Op.
You can make a long string of sentances that sound really nice about some random thing that has no bearing on the story or characters or what have you. But it's pointless if the thing you're writing about is pointless. But if you're writing about something that, in itself, has actual weight and importance to the work, then elaborate prose will elevate it.
Ex.
>A beautiful three paragraph description of a forest a man is walking through.
The forest is transitionary in the story. Only a path that the man walks through to get to somewhere else. In the long run, it has no bearing on him. No gravity. Thus, the long description is, though it may be excellent, useless and purple.
>A three paragraph long description of the land a man has found and decided to build a home on.
The house being is the primary subject, therefore any amount of beautiful description remains beautiful because it has purpose. To show his attachment to the land and immerse the reader in the setting.

Basically what I think Opie is saying is that prose is purple when it is purposeless, while beautiful writing requires a reason to be there. The sentences can be the same, but what they're about, the core, is what determines if it's cringe or based