Purple prose -- and proud of it

I'm fairly certain that the term refers only to the negative examples. I'm not saying that the writing style can't be pulled off well, just that if it is, it isn't Purple Prose.

Hey. There's good Purple Prose and there's bad Purple Prose.

I thought if it was good that it would be Scenery Porn and if it was bad it'd be Purple Prose. That might just be me.

I like Left Field Description more. Takes even more thought to get effective descriptions, but when done well, hooo boy does it just slap you in the face with awesome.

"The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

If it wasn't for that brilliant opener, I wouldn't have slogged through the convoluted mess that is the first 1/3 of Neuromancer.

Purple prose is ok, but as was mentioned earlier, it's about using it at the right time.

Also I hate it when people think they are so smart when they use "plethora" in a sentence. It's a dumb word and people are dumb for using it.

Neuromancer's opening line is a classic, although I fear that within a generation it will be meaningless, what with digital TV now a standard and analog 'snow' obsolete.

The image lives on in countless low-rent ghosty films, though. I give it a healthy thirty years more, then twenty years of people going 'huh? wussat?' before it's finally put to bed forever.

I write in purple prose usually to attain specific effects, and I'm not above switching to beige prose if that seems helpful (or amusing).

For instance, purple prose (I feel) is inappropriate if something exciting is happening to your narrator/close third person-guy.

Unless they're Vampires, of course.

I have to say, I think I'm probably a little different from OP on this issue. I tend to tone down my own PP (I write poetry for that shiznit), but I LOVE reading other people's.

One thing though (warning, may be a little controversial):

• Charles Dickens = sentimental, mushy, author-tracty, pseudo-philosophical hogwash. BAD PURPLE PROSE (and bad beige prose in some books too!)

• Edward Bulwer-Lytton = joyful, evocative, intense, whole-hearted, honest, pulpy fun. GOOD PURPLE PROSE.

That is all.

edited 15th Nov '10 11:36:23 AM by mmysqueeant

My last memories of "dead channels" are white noise because I stopped watching TV a lot when I was 14ish.

So take THAT Science Marches On

I do not write purple prose. I have nothing against people who do. Many people could care less about a fairly common stylistic choice.

I find this thread ridiculous. What purpose does it serve, other than to give people a pat on the back for falling into the category of those who happen to use flowery language and for people who don't use it to give a mild "Props to you even though I don't use it myself"?

I suppose Neuromancer's opening line will take on a new meaning nowadays — unnaturally blue skies, or perhaps completely black. And that could add an inflection of atmosphere..

See All Quiet On The Western Front for great examples of very purple prose that works. It's pretty much poetic in style, and a lot of it is in really intense scenes, but it works perfectly.

Good prose is a windowpane