Monday, February 15, 2010

Purple Prose

Personally, I'm not a fan of purple prose. The writing itself is impressive; however, I read it somewhere this kind of writing belonged to writers of the Nineteenth and the early Twentieth Centuries, because writing in the Twenty-first Century, writers are competing with so many things resulted from technology: TV, computer, laptop, Smart Phone, IPhone, IPad, video games, to name a few. According to some statistics, only 60% of readers who put down the book will pick it up again. And purple prose tends to slow down the story. It's the place where a reader closes up the book and puts it away.

Someone may argue: purple prose is stylist and literary writing. I won't argue that one. I believe writers have their own tastes and preferences. As a writer, I prefer simplistic and direct style and have been writing in such manner. Also, another sign of good writing is vigorous writing. Purple prose tends to lack the vigor. Agree? Or disagree?

1 comment:

Surazeus said...

I had to look up the phrase purple prose to see what you mean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_prose

I found that if I read a fragment of purple prose with a grin at the delightful play of words to paint sparkling images, I found myself laughing with delight.

I would say that purple prose could serve a specific purpose to make the reader laugh with an ironic sense of joy.