Re: Grey Matter

[Birgitte Jorgensen <bj@kemmunet.net.mt>]

"Baldwin, Daniel" wrote:

> I think we should give credit where's its due -- the phrase "darkness
> visible" comes from "Paradise Lost"   (from a description of either Hell or
> Satan, I don't remember which -- it's been a long time since Freshman
> English), and is one of the great all-time oxymorons. By adding the word
> "made" Styron turned the phrase into a metaphor for the psychological state
> of depression. I have nothing against metaphors, but in this case the
> conversion from the oxymoron (which already itself contains a metaphor)
> lowers the rhetorical intensity level one notch.
>
> Sorry to be cranky, but its Monday morning. And no -- I didn't wander in
> from the English 101 Chat list.
>
> And a good oxymoron to all of you!

On behalf of William Styron, I'd be happy to give credit where it's due to
John Milton. But Milton being unavailable for comment, I'll stand by Styron's
right to appropriate his phrase as a powerful and evocative metaphor for
clinical depression, which must surely be a form of Hell that Milton would
recognize.

-Birgitte