This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Meaningless Meaningful Words: From YKTTW
Pteryx: I personally only winced at the second of those three opening quotes. To me, the first just sounded like garden-variety Cryptic Conversation and the third actually conjured an image. But what the hell was the point of the second?!
Adam: Isn't this just a synonym for purple prose? I can appreciate why some (most?) tropes have neologistic titles, but is there a good reason not to use a well known term that already exists?
LO Rd: I would argue that there is a difference. Meaningless Meaningful Words are about dialogue, whereas purple prose is used by the narrator. In addition, purple prose only seeks to impress, whereas Meaningless Meaningful Words try to be insightful or profound, but only result in a broken koan.
On that note, it seems that we do not indeed have a page for Purple Prose. fixing that now.
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Purple Prose is thick and hard to penetrate—the sort of prose it's tempting to gloss over. Meaningless Meaningful Words can be short, succinct, and catchy, while still not being clear. Think of the Kingdom Hearts II example.
Ninjacrat: Pulling:
- Gordon R. Dickson is fond of these, especially in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series; never use 'green' where you can use 'viridian'...
A) Wrong guy.
and
B) Donaldson's inimitable prose was already covered at Author Vocabulary Calendar.
Clerval: To me ALL of the opening quotes sound as if they at least might be okay in context. (Which does worry me a little, but still). The second one... well, it would be fine if it were actually from an ancient Greek text, though I assume it's not, and to me it seems to mean "Because Destiny Says So, War was about to begin," which isn't meaningless, and even though the tone of the whole thing is rather portentous, doesn't contain any loaded-but-empty words. Can't we have some of that interminable conversation about Christ knows what between Neo and that old bloke in Matrix Reloaded?
Donteatacowman: My two cents thrown in: The only part I didn't understand was "For gray-eyed Destiny now weaves apace". A quick visit to the dictionary later ("apace"= quickly, swiftly, with speed), and all I don't get is why Destiny has gray eyes.
Zeppelin(yeah, I should get around to Blue Shifting that one of these days): And the first one could mean "It's even more horrible than your loved one dying to hear them afterwards", but maybe I'm just reading too much into it.
Horrid Red Things: Is there any other way to use the word "truth" except "my side is right"?
Shyria Dracnoir: Am I overthinking things, because I think I came up with an interpretation for that first blurb on the main page that makes some sense. 'The songs of the dead are the lamentations of the living' ==> 'What most people take for granted is often, in retrospect, the greatest treasure of all?' Granted, I will say the other two are glorified Word Salad.
The Gunheart: On the subject of speaking of the dead, is that really the best example for Plan 9 From Outer Space? Compared to the quote from Lost Aesop, that one actually makes perfect sense.
puritybrown: Just want to note here that the original that gave rise to the Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series example is not as meaningless as it looks. In the original Japanese, Anzu is fidgeting because she needs to go to the toilet, and Honda points to the sea and suggests she go over the side of the ship, which she's not too keen on. 4Kids changed this to Téa fidgeting because she's cold, so when Tristan says "In another few hours, the sun will rise!" he's not trying to make a profound statement; he's just saying "Hey, we'll get warmer eventually!" It's a bit cryptic and it doesn't work as well as the original line, but it does make sense and it's not actually an example of Meaningless Meaningful Words. However, I'm not cutting the example, because in the Abridged Series it is a case of Meaningless Meaningful Words, because Little Kuriboh thought the dub line was incomprehensible and turned it into a running gag.
