In Poetics XXII (Butcher), what is the 'perfection of style', and what are the two ways of failing it (mean, and riddle or jargon)?
XXII's opening: the perfection of style is to be clear without being mean. Using only current or proper words is the clearest style but, the text says, it is mean (flat, undistinguished); using unusual words (rare words, metaphors, lengthened forms) lifts the style above the commonplace. Go all the way and the result is a riddle (if made of metaphors) or a jargon (if made of rare words). XXI had defined 'current' and 'strange' relative to a people, so what counts as unusual depends on the audience.
XXII's opening: the perfection of style is to be clear without being mean. Using only current or proper words is the clearest style but, the text says, it is mean (flat, undistinguished); using unusual words (rare words, metaphors, lengthened forms) lifts the style above the commonplace. Go all the way and the result is a riddle (if made of metaphors) or a jargon (if made of rare words). XXI had defined 'current' and 'strange' relative to a people, so what counts as unusual depends on the audience.
Curator qualifications: Diction should be 'clear without being mean'; all-unusual diction becomes riddle or jargon.
Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
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"url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1974/pg1974.txt",
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- [sourced_fact] XXII's opening: the perfection of style is to be clear without being mean. Using only current or proper words is the clearest style but, the text says, it is mean (flat, undistinguished); using unusual words (rare words, metaphors, lengthened forms) lifts the style above the commonplace. Go all the way and the result is a riddle (if made of metaphors) or a jargon (if made of rare words). XXI had defined 'current' and 'strange' relative to a people, so what counts as unusual depends on the audience. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts source
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