tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post2168317938190260428..comments2023-10-30T09:26:32.732+00:00Comments on Now's the time: decomposition, cold and stormy, out of tuneAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06972049290586377462noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13609842.post-48227717566115359582008-11-10T17:36:00.000+00:002008-11-10T17:36:00.000+00:00The phrase "It was a dark and stormy night", made ...The phrase "It was a dark and stormy night", made famous by comic strip artist Charles M. Schulz, was originally penned by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton as the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford. The phrase itself is now understood as a signifier of a certain broad style of writing, characterized by a self-serious attempt at dramatic flair, the imitation of formulaic styles, an extravagantly florid style, redundancies, and run-on sentences. Bulwer-Lytton's original opening sentence serves as an example:<BR/><BR/>It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.<BR/><BR/>Thank you Wikipedia (although note "dark" not "cold"). I think the explanatory sentence almost qualifies as wit.<BR/><BR/>I'm sure I'd got much further in journalism if my surname had been Bulwer-Lytton.Roderick Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16828395545197001637noreply@blogger.com